Amy Tan Two Kinds Conflict

So, she discovers a way to wear down her mother and eventually make her stop. Ni Kan first figures this out with her mother’s nightly tests. Seeing her mother’s disappointment when Ni Kan fails to meet her expectations fuels Ni Kan’s anger, and she has a moment of clarity; “I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not” (545).

Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” Ni Kan goes in to a rage and rebels. “Then I wish I 'd never been born!” Ni Kan shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like them.” Referring to the twin baby girls her mother had lost in China. This was Ni Kan’s mother braking point and Ni Kan knew it, she saw it in her mother’s face.

sat down at a piano, having never studied, with little exposure to piano music in her lifetime,

If Ni’kan used her temper for talent, she would’ve become famous. Ni’kan is fighting her mom while mom just wants her daughter to put forth her best effort. Ni’kan can’t see this because she no longer wants to try to do anything for her mom. Not realizing that her mom is only trying to bring out who she already is. Ni’Kan’s rebellion to her mom caused her to not live out her full potential as a child and throughout her adult life.

The daughter did not like the idea of playing the piano. “Why don’t you like me the way I am? . . . I am not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!” (492-493). Here, Tan is conveying the fact that parents and children have disagreements on what the child should do, and who the child is to become. For example, parents may have an idea where they want their child to attend their college education. The child, on the other hand, may want to go to a different college as suggested. Ultimately, it is the decision of the child. We cannot live how others want us to live. It is the path of our own making that truly makes us happy.

In the short story “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan uses symbolism to show Mei growing up as an independent woman. One way she portrayed it, was by using the piano. When my mother told me this,

When Tian’s own dream dies he ruthlessly pushes music on his daughters in order to allow him to live vicariously through them. Anna, the oldest, tries to win her father’s love through the violin but ends up having “a mediocre sense of pitch” (54) and Tian can no longer stand to teach Anna the violin. Min notices “when he looked at Anna he saw nothing but his own struggles; he hated her difficulties, but he especially hated his own.” (55); this immense self-hatred, and lack of an identity outside of the violin, causes him to viciously force Ruth to become a violinist. Despite her lack of interest and the fact that she cries during every practice, Tian does not care as he sees promise in her. He yells at Ruth “Do you understand? From now on, you work. You practice every day” (60) to which Ruth responds “No no no no-“(60). It does not seem to matter to Tian that his daughter has no real desire to play the

It wasn’t until that summer I walked across a bright yellow home. Through the windows, I could see an Asian woman was playing a beautiful song on her black grand piano. The sound of her music was like a stream of water running quietly through the green forest. From that moment, I became inspired to learn how to play the piano. I decided to take piano lessons with her and made it a goal to learn how to play the piano. My piano teacher, Ms. Li, was my role model because she showed me that there are unique and fascinating things people can learn to do in this world. As days turned to months and months turned into years, I continued to strive to become my inspiration. Many times, I felt like the Indians on the reservation and just wanted to give up because I felt it was too hard to make it to the top. Eight years later, I’ve completed my piano training. Today, people would always compliment my style of playing when I would play the piano. Sometimes I would come across a very young boy or girl who wanted to learn how to play the piano after they heard me play. I told them, “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.” My piano teacher has been and will always be my inspiration and role model. Today, I have become a role model and inspiration for many people who want to learn how to play the piano. Role models and heroes are important in shaping people’s personalities and qualities because they provide people with goals to strive for.

Often in literature, character relationships change and evolve. “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is about how a daughter’s feelings change when her mother has higher expectations than the daughter, Jing-mei, does in herself. Jing-mei’s lack of self confidence in becoming a prodigy creates conflict between her and her mother. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader understands how Jing-mei’s feelings toward her mother changed, why her feelings changed, and how those changed feelings affected the entire story.

Ni kan is the main character Tan writes about who struggles with deciding who she really wants to be. The theme ¨Be grateful for what you have when you have it because nothing is forever.¨ is developed through that. Ni kan is forced to be this “prodigy” child, this perfect being, that her mother pushes her to be. She tried to be what seems like nearly everything starting at a Chinese Shirley Temple to a Piano Player.

She had failed her mother in many ways and felt terrible for it. She had stayed away from her parents for years because of it until one day. It was her thirtieth birthday and her mother reached out to her asking if she wanted the piano that they had bought her so many years earlier. She thought it was like a forgiveness offering something to get rid of the burden but was oddly surprised by what her mother had said to her. Her mother had encouraged her to play the piano again but this time try hard not like the last time. Ni kan decided not to take it at first she was very proud of it like it was a shiny trophy. She sent of a tuner one day to tune the piano for sentimental reasons but when she went over to pick up some things at her parents house she began to play the piano again. She played pleading child the song she had learned for the talent show and then saw on the right hand side a piece called perfectly content and realized it was the second half of the song. Two pieces of one

In the story Two Kinds by Amy Tan it tells the tale of conflict between a mother Suyuan and her daughter Jing-mei over piano lessons. Two Kinds deals with a clash between a mother’s belief of hard work and persistance and a daughter's belief that being a prodigy is unachievable. Amy Tan shows generational differences among immigrant families negotiating the mythology of the American Dream.

She began to rebel, “‘why don’t you like me the way I am?’ I cried. ‘I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go on TV if you paid me a million

Furthermore, Jing-mei discovers, “Old Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with wrong notes [she] was playing,”(472). As a result, Jing-mei performs “Pleading Child” miserably at the talent show her parents and all of the members of the Joy Luck Club attended. Jing-mei saw the disapproval and shame on her mother’s face, and decided to stop practicing piano. If Jing-mei’s mother wouldn’t have looked so disappointed and been proud of her daughter Jing-mei wouldn’t have been so discouraged. Jing-mei would’ve still had faith in herself like she did before her performance. “When my turn came, I was very confident. I remember my childish excitement. It was as if I knew, without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist. I had no fear whatsoever, no nervousness. This is it!” (474). After seeing the dismay in her parents eyes Jing-mei changed her whole outlook on the situation, which weakened Jing-mei’s pride, causing her to fully rebel from being a prodigy. Furthermore, encouraging her to be who she wanted to be.

As a pianist, her career was a failure and thus we move into the climax of this story. On