Amy Tan Identity

Further, Tan depicts Jing-me as defiant in the face of her mother’s expectations for her. This defiant attitude can be seen when Jing-me finds out that she will be taking piano lessons from Mr. Chong. She throws a fit and asks her mother “Why don’t you like me the way I am?” (597). While at the piano lessons she further shows her defiance of her mother’s expectations when she learns that she can “be lazy and get away with mistakes, lots of mistakes” (598). Jing-me is upset with her mother for forcing her to take lessons, so she gets back at her by making a minimal effort to learn. Also, Jing-me displays her bold attitude a few days after she completely embarrassed her parents with a miserable performance at a talent-show. For example, she thought that after her poor performance at the talent-show, she “never had to play the piano again” (601). She further shows her defiant attitude when her mother reminds her that it is time to practice. Jing-me replies “I’m not going to play anymore” (601). All of these actions clearly shows Jing-me’s defiant nature, which results in a strained relationship between mother and daughter.

Instead of giving up, her mother decides to transform Jing-Mei into a great musician, and Jing-Mei soon finds herself taking piano lessons. Her tutor, however, suffers from deaf ears and she takes advantage of his handicap by pretending to studiously play. Jing-Mei succeeds with her ruse to the point where her mother brags to Jing-Mei’s Auntie Lindo about her piano playing prowess, saying: “It’s like you can’t stop her natural talent.” (Tan 209) Soon

In this story “Two kinds” by Amy Tan it shows the great expectations of a mother, who wishes for her child to be famous and a genius. The mother coming from a society that is very hard working and obedient trying to instill the upbringing she had I her life. The child Jing-mei is a typical example of a child rebelling against their mothers wishes no matter how hard the parental figure tries, the child wishes to perform things in their own way and use their own freewill and to do things in there own timely fashion.

In the trial of making her daughter an American prodigy the mother repeatedly pressures Jing Mei to become something into she is not. The mother is so ambitious about her daughter. She wants to secure Jing Mei’s future and by trying to do so she does not realize how much jeopardize she put her daughter’s life into. But, Jing Mei responds very negatively to this tyranny. She does not want to become something she is not. “ I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not.”(Pg.- 194). So she used the piano to deceive her teacher, her mother pretending she is practicing the lessons, but in the end she finds that she actually deceives herself. Throughout her life she struggled with schooling and finally quit. All these she sees as the result to her mother’s pressure, but who is the sufferer at the very end. The mother is highly ambitious and the daughter is super stubborn. These two things together make Jing Mei nobody in her life and stop her mother to expect anything from her ever in her life, which she started with the piano. Both of them were just struggling over the piano. One was struggling to push other up, and the other was struggling to push her down to become her true self, not her mother’s made

She thought long and hard one night and soon decided, “I won’t let her change me, I promise myself. I won’t be what I’m not” (Tan 223). This was the start to a long, tiring battle between the two which would soon, unknowingly, damage them mentally and emotionally, enduringly. She began neglecting her mother’s tricks to help her and started to rebel. After her mother enrolled her in piano lessons, Jing-mei took complete advantage of them and her deaf piano instructor. She “would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and then [I] just played some nonsense that sounded like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans” (Tan 226). It showed how little effort she put in and how she was going against her mother’s wishes to no extent, wasting her hard earned money just to make a statement. It seemed the harder and more she was pushed, the less Jing-mei believed in herself or her mother’s attempts.

Jing-mei sees her mother in a better light and tries to understand her way of thinking, repairing a

Because of Jing-mei’s mother’s Chinese culture, where obedience is strongly enforced and parents are generally authoritarian figures in their Chinese households, she believes in total obedience and that she can transform Jing-mei into whatever she wants her to be. As one critic

After dedicating her life to rebelling against her mother’s word , she finds she hasn’t focused on a life that serves a purpose for herself.Jing-mei never got it through her head that her mother wasn't looking into forming her into something else.Looking back Jing-mei realizes, “So maybe I never gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age” (Tan 226).There is an instance where the narrator will get to showcase her skills as a pianist, though fails miserably. The scene shows how her malevolence backfires on her and creates the biggest blow for Jing-mei. Coming home from the demeaning concert where she played horridly, the protagonist admits, “I had been waiting for her to start shouting, so I could shout back and cry and blame her for

However, her mother sees it as a way for her daughter to be the best. Meanwhile, Jing-mei decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes. During piano lessons with Mr. Chong she realizes easy ways to get out of practicing.

Furthermore, in this story Jing-Mei’s mother had her mind fixed into thinking that she needed to

In her Chinese culture, they pushed their children to the extreme in academics, music, or sports. Her mother had always pushed her daughter to find something she was good at. Jing-mei had come to a breaking point after her mother had pushed her past her limit. Jing-mei had told her mother, “You want me to be someone that I’m not!”

In addition, the voice has matured from a girl into a woman. Jing-Mei’s mother offers the piano that they had fought over as a peace offering. Jing-Mei always thought that throughout her life even after the piano fight she had failed her mother by dropping out of college and not getting straight A’s. Finally, she found that her mother never lost any hope for her no matter how many times she failed. Her mother still dreamed that she could be a prodigy if she wanted to.

As Jing-mei grew up, she remembers many times when her mom tells her to watch and learn, or when she talks about future goals that she has for her. Jing-mei’s mother made it

Amy Tan uses the conflict between mother and daughter by showing how her mother pushes Jing-mei so that she can become successful by her being the smart, talented Chinese girl that she's ?supposed? to be. But Jing-mei does not want to be that girl that her Mom wants so she refuses to do such things. ??You want me to be something that I?m not!? I sobbed. ? I?ll never be the kind of

In the short text “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, a woman , named Jing-Mei, is remembering the time when her mother thought that Jing-Mei could be a child prodigy. However, Jing-Mei knew that she was not a prodigy and she would never be one. Despite her protests, Jing-Mei's mother gets her a piano and piano lessons in the hopes that she might turn out to be a musical genius. Later Jing-Mei is forced to join a talent show so her mother can brag about her to friends and family. During the talent show Jing-Mei messes up, and is humiliated in front of her family and more importantly, her mother. After that incident, Jing-Mei and her mother get into get into an argument which causes Jing-Mei to mention her mother’s dead daughters and end the argument.