Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan

Our parents often play an important role in shaping us into the type of people we will eventually become. In the short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan, Tan portrays a mother daughter relationship through the daughters eyes while she struggles with her mother trying to make her into prodigy. Although I was never thought to be a prodigy, I was very good at soccer, and therefor I was forced to play it. Like Jing Mei, I played soccer because I wanted my parents to be proud, I wanted to be socially accepted, and

The definition of an underachiever as stated by Webster is “one (such as a student) that fails to attain a predicted level of achievement or does not do as well as expected.” In the short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan, Ni’Kan is the queen of underachievers. She determines at a young age to become defiant to her mom. After experiencing disappointment from letting her mom down, Ni’Kan determined that she would not become a child prodigy and intentionally failed throughout her life.

In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American,

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Parents always want their children to succeed and in the short essay, “Listening to My Father”, Michael Dirda discusses how a father wants his son to succeed in his life. In the second sentence, the author states, “He yearned to see my name-his name, too - metaphorically or even actually in light, and was constantly urging me from an early age to better myself “(Paragraph 1 sentence 2). The father wants his son to learn, and explore in order to have a better life than his. Even though the father is strict towards his son, he shows affection when the son ends up getting sick. The father desires that his son doesn’t have to go through what he had to go through. In the last paragraph the author states, “My dad had dropped out of school at 16 when

The story Two Kinds By Amy Tan was about a young Chinese girl and her mother who had just moved to the United States. The mother had moved to America because she had lost everything her husband, mom,dad, and children. Even in spite of all this loss she never looked back and never regretted her decision. One day Ni kan’s mother had the idea of Ni kan becoming a child prodigy because to Ni kan's mother you could do anything in America.

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.

In the chapter “Dreaming Heroes” from Friday Night Light by H.G. Bissinger, and the chapter “Two Kinds” from The Joy luck Club by Amy Tan there are high parental expectations placed on children. Both Jon Billingsley from “Dreaming of Heroes” and Jing Mei from “Two Kinds” are affected by the high expectations their parents place on them. Sometimes when parents have high expectation, it causes children to either struggle and give up or use it to motivate them. In both novels the parents have high expectations for their children.

In the short story Two Kinds by Amy Tan, she writes about a child named Jing-mei and her experiences with her mother pushing her to become a prodigy, all while her mother deals with being a Chinese immigrant that just moved to the United States. The two countries obviously share very different cultures and this plays a part in the story as she pushes Jing-mei to live ‘The American Dream’. Her mother strongly believes that in America you can be whatever you want to be. This, to some, may not be true, however this idea is strongly pushed in the Chinese culture. This is shown when Jing-mei fails to do any prodigious task that her mother puts in front of her which leads to her mother being ultimately disappointed in Jing-mei. Her failures ends up causing a huge argument between Jing-mei and her mother. The argument could be called the climax of the story. This confrontation wouldn’t have happened if Jing-mei’s mother didn’t have the huge idea that The American Dream is a legitimate thing, and Jing-mei’s mother wouldn’t have that perception of America if the Chinese culture didn’t present the United States as such a place. Based on Chinese culture and perspectives, there are numerous fallacies concerning the American Dream, and these are displayed in Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds”.

“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is a story that shows a battle that starts with the narrator and her mother, for control over the narrator’s life. Her mother wanted her to become a prodigy, but she wanted to be anything other than that. So, throughout the short story “Two Kinds” she’s determined to not quit the fight. “Two Kinds” is filled with different forms of conflict which allows for the narrator to realize that her mother’s crazy antics were to help her find what she was good at. Which leads to the narrator facing twoness until her mother is no longer

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

Like many immigrants think, America is the land of opportunity. People from all over the world,

Both men and women are faced with the cultural strains of gender norms. Although one can sympathize for both genders, historically speaking, women have faced significantly more repercussions. In Amy Tan’s, Two Kinds, the theme of feminine oppression is represented by the symbolism of the song in which the main character, Ni kan, must recite as a child. The song she recites is called “Pleading Child” and she only realizes that the song has a second half called “Perfectly Contented” until adulthood. The two contrasting pieces of music represent the defiance of women to standards of femininity set by the patriarchy. This is showcased by the relationship between Ni kan and her mother who symbolize women living in a patriarchal society and the patriarchy itself, respectively. Moreover, their relationship reflects the oppression of women by the ideologies of; undermining a woman’s value, denying a woman’s choice and the disagreement between the sexes.

The short story, “two Kinds” by Amy Tan is about a girl named Jing-Mei, or “June” who’s mother is basically wanting to live her life through her. Since they moved from China to live in America, her mother knows that the US is the “land of opportunity”, and wants June to be a talented prodigy and have the high hopes for her to become famous. June has failed all other options to be this prodigy her mother wants to be, but what has caught her mother's train of thought was that she thinks June should be a pianist. And once again she has failed. June has had the thoughts of wanting to die because she knows she cannot please her mother, she feels its best. This story’s theme reflects on ‘The American Dream’ and how June does not want to live it.

Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.