Jing-Mei Moo: Two Kinds

In the short story “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan uses the narrator’s point of view to share a mother's attempt to control her daughter's dreams and ambitions. Tan`s short story is an example of how differing personalities cause struggles between a parent and child. Children often fall victim to a parent trying too hard or expectations being too high, and in the case of "Two Kinds," we see Jing Mei’s mother trying to live her life through that of Jing Mei. The outcome of her mother’s actions soon leads the narrator into feeling tension within herself, and between herself and her mother.

Our mothers have played very valuable roles in making us who a we are and what we have become of ourselves. They have been the shoulder we can lean on when there was no one else to turn to. They have been the ones we can count on when there was no one else. They have been the ones who love of us for who we are and forgive us when no one else wouldn’t. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the character Jing-mei experiences being raised by a mother who has overwhelming expectations for her daughter, causes Jing-mei to struggle with who she wants to be. “Only two kind of daughters,” “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!”(476). When a mother pushes her daughter to hard the daughter rebels, but realizes in the end that their mothers

Amy Tan had many personal experiences in her story. For example, when Amy Tan was living in Northern California, her mother had very high expectations on her. Her mother wanted her to be with the American society and be the best she could be. Amy Tan had to get a haircut very short to the way other famous children were acting in the United States. Amy’s mother was the one who encouraged this. With that, in the story “Two Kinds,” the young girl named Jing-mei live in a part of California and she had to get a very short haircut. Jing-mei’s mother wanted her daughter to look and act the same way Shirley Temple did. Within both of the girls lives, they each had to act like an already famous person exactly to please their mothers.

The mother-daughter relationship is often scrutinized, publicized, and capitalized on. Whether from tell-all biographies, to humorous sit-coms, or private therapy sessions, this particular relationship dynamic gives some of the most emotion-activating memories. When female authors reflect and write about their relationships with their mothers, they have a tendency to taint their reflections with the opinions they have as an adult, reviewing the actions of their mother when they were young. These opinions set the tone of the story independently and in conjunction with the relationship itself and manifest in creative literary styles that weave an even more intricate story. Case in point, when reviewing the two literary works “I Stand Here

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.

Amy Tan's, “Mother Tongue” and Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” both share similar traits in their writings of these two short stories. “Mother Tongue” revolves around the experiences Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story narrated by “Mama” the mother of two daughters Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother and daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships. Although both short stories

Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.

Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School who wrote a memoir named Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, believes that parenting style should be strict parenting is the key to successful child-rearing. In addition, she believes that hardened child-rearing approach with the methods of close monitoring and behavioral restrictions. Also, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, Chua wrote that parents should override their children preferences such things as hobbies and academic performance. Moreover, she thinks the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be the best students and that academic achievement reflects successful parenting, and that if children did not excel at school then there was a problem and parents were not doing their job. According to Chua, through close monitoring and disciplines, children will be able to

Furthermore, Amy Tan writes a wonderful short story about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, yet one can be enriching. The theme of “Two

" I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal , trying to scratch out the face in the mirror ." . (Chunk 2 , Paragraph 14 ) In the excerpt " Two Kinds " by Amy Tan , it talked about a little girl , named Jing-mei , who would rebel against her mother because she knew she wasn't going to be a prodigy . Her mother believed in the " American Dream " , but Jing-mei didn't believe in such thing . Her mother left China with nothing , she had lost everything she loved back in China , and she heard about the " American Dream " . In the end , the mother died . She died because her daughter , Jing-mei , had completely ruined her pride and her chance of becoming part of an " American Dream " . Her mother became silent and pale and passed away 28 years later . She performed playing her piano and when her mother passed away she went back to the piece she played at the performance and realized that it was half of a song and when she looked at the other half she realized her mistakes . Not obeying her mother's orders because of a single rebellious , ignorant act . " Two Kinds " uses central conflicts between mother and daughter to develop the theme that anger changes a person in many unknown and unfamiliar ways that one didn't know existed . Firstly , the main conflict are caused in many ways . The problem of / with the mother and Jing-mei is external as shown in paragraph 27 , 'When my mother told me this , I felt as though I had been sent to hell . I whined , and then kicked my feet a

Amy Tran’s story of the “Two Kinds” is a story about mother and her daughter who has complicated relationship and the relationship will deteriorate as the mother pushes her daughter to become a best for everything. At the beginning of the story ,Amy give us the impression that mother wants her daughter to become more productive and flourish in the society and to some degree to exceed everything for the best because she did not had the chance that her daughter have today. The mother was born and raised in china where she had lost her mother, her father, her first husband, her twin’s babies. It can be said the loss and tragedy has been vanished from her and she is only focused from now on her present life and the future headed of her daughter.

The article, the book, and I, talk about how daughters feel their mothers don’t know them and that they don’t know their mothers. They talk about how a daughter listens to her mother, but there is a certain point in a young woman 's mind where they decide they want to see and explore new ideas. In conclusion, they all talk about the point in a daughter 's life where she and her mother don’t get along very well and the daughter tries to take charge of her life.

In the story “ Two Kinds” Amy Tan presents the theme ¨Be grateful for what you have when you have it because nothing is forever¨ through the main characters Ni kan and her mother and also through foreshadowing. Tan takes the reader through a story of a girl and her mother as they both individually learn a good life lesson.

Throughout Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the reader can see the difficulites in the mother-daughter relationships.  The mothers came to America from China hoping to give their daughters better lives than what they had.  In China, women were “to be obedient, to honor one’s parents, one’s husband, and to try to please him and his family,” (Chinese-American Women in American Culture).  They were not expected to have their own will and to make their own way through life.  These mothers did not want this for their children so they thought that in America “nobody [would] say her worth [was] measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch…nobody [would] look down on her…” (3).  To

Most parents impose very high expectations on their children. While some expect their sons to become professionals in respected fields, others encourage their daughters to find good husbands. The parents impose these expectations without consulting their children. In most situations, the expectations of the parent deviate from the dreams of the child. This is what becomes evident when one reads Sandra Cisneros’ Only Daughter and Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue. In these short stories, the expectations that the parents of the narrators elicit mixed reactions. The expectations of the narrators’ parents hold them back from attaining personal goals while causing them to desperately desire approval and eventually accepting and embracing their parents..