Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan

In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan emphasizes the influence a mother’s past has on the decisions she makes for her child by the way Suyuan pressures June to become a prodigy. Suyuan attempted to flee China with her babies during the war, but “she could not bear to watch her babies die with her,” and left them, hoping someone would save her babies (Tan 325). She thought she would not live much longer, and wished her babies would be saved, and live on if she could not. Suyuan always put her children before herself, attempting to give them the best possible life, even if she was not there for it. As a result, after Suyuan has June, she wants the best possible life for her, and pressures June to become a prodigy. Suyuan pushes June to be a pianist, forcing “piano practice… every day, two hours a day, from four until six” (Tan 146). The way Suyuan is imposing these lessons on June, demonstrate Suyuan’s need for June to become successful and accomplish the goals that

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,

In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman.

The mother in “Two Kinds”, is culturally accustomed to raising a child to be obedient and expects her daughter to bare her extreme parenting measures. With the daughter’s mother coming from China she

In the article,” Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," author Amy Chua describes how parenting is approached in Chinese culture as compared to "Western parents." She compares Western and Chinese parents on how they approach their children’s' upbringings. She gives examples from her experiences raising her own daughters. Chua's daughters were not allowed to attend sleepovers and could not score grades any lower than an "A" in school classes. Chua also forced her kids in learning a piece for the piano. In separate story, author Amy Tan discusses the mother-daughter relationship in Chinese-American culture in "Two Kinds." This story is told from the viewpoint of an American-born Chinese girl named Jing-mei. Her immigrant mother, Mrs. Woo, believes that being in America is freedom and wants her daughter to take advantage of that freedom. Her mother has her try several activities in an attempt to

“You must raise children yourself to understand your parents’ love.” This passage is a common proverb to express the challenge of understanding parents’ love and intentions. Similar to the proverb, Amy Tan illustrates the process of recognizing mother’s intention in her short story “Two Kinds.” The mother and daughter confront because of the mother’s anxiousness in finding her daughter’s prodigy. As time goes by, through one important scene in the story, the daughter becomes aware of her mother’s love and comes to terms with herself. The significant scene is when Jing-Mei’s mother offers her the piano for her thirtieth birthday. With all the conflicts she had with her mother and within herself, from the important scene, Jing-Mei realizes that she is transformed from a “pleading child” into a “perfect contented” adult.

In fact, June grew up in a small neighborhood, in which she didn’t not have as many opportunities as she has now in America. As the mother comes to America she is experiencing a new life with bigger and better things. Her intentions for making June a prodigy were to gain bragging rights respect among small Chinatown, just like her friend, Auntie Lindo, whose daughter was “Chinatown’s Littlest Chinese Chess Champion. “ The mother just wanted June to have a bright and better future for her and to become a prodigy as she always visualized she'll be. Unlike the mother in, "Everyday Use" she had no intention of gaining any other knowledge then the one she already had. She was happy with what she knew of her heritage, but her daughter Dee knew

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 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”.

In the “Two Kinds” story the author illustrates the struggle between her American cultural identity, and her mother’s Chinese culture, as like the characters in the story. The author shows what is the struggle and the conflict that cultural differences creates. The author also uses symbolism, to address the conflicts between the characters in the story.

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,

This education, seen from the other side of the cultural gap, is what makes Lena see her mother as a weak person. Lena has a job, an American husband, she lives an American life, unlike her mother, who is attached to weird old disused Chinese traditions. But she herself is not happy, as her mother can see. Her husband is not as good as he might be: he exploits her, paying her a too low wage, never recognizes her contribution to their success as architects,... On the other hand, Ying- Ying marriage, although imperfect, is based on firmer grounds of respect and goodness towards each other than that of Lena.

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.