Media: The Second God Essay

The central struggle in Amy Tan 's story "Two Kinds" is a battle of wills between the narrator, a young Chinese American girl, and her mother, a Chinese immigrant. "Two Kinds" is a coming-of-age story, in which the narrator, Jing-mei, struggles to forge her own sense of identity in the face of her strong-willed mother 's dream that she become a "prodigy." Jing-mei is caught between her Chinese mother 's traditional ideas about how to raise a daughter, and her own development as a Chinese American girl straddling two cultures.

I have chosen the movie Signs to do my worldview analysis on. First, I will discuss the worldviews that the main characters in the movie have. I will then answer the question of if the characters were true to their worldviews. I will also discuss the obstacles that the main characters faced that deterred the character or characters from living out their worldview. Lastly, I will describe mental, emotional, or spiritual reactions I had to the movie as well as explain if I agree or disagree with the worldview present in the movie.

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.

One thing that the author was trying to get across is that people have to fight for what they want. Nothing is simply handed to anyone. In “Many Rivers to Cross”, she goes through a lot of adversity. The divorce with her husband was one, but the main one was her mother’s suicide. Usually after someone dies in a person’s life, a whole new window is opened. The young woman realized a lot after her mother’s death. The effect of her mother’s death was that she knew from then on that she had to live her life the best way she can. She was so tired of letting everyone down. This was her revelation, “And it was to honor my mother that I did fight with my father, that man who could not tell the living from the dead,” she said, “And really it is to honor Mrs. Hazel Griffin and my cousin Valerie all the woman that I love” (Jordan, 68-71). The struggles that the character in “Two Kinds” goes through is continuously disappointing her mother. What was most difficult for her was that she lives in a foreign family, a Chinese family, which most people know that they can be really strict people. Every time her mother set her up to do something that she did not want to do, she failed at it and that made her mother upset. The author is showing the reader the effects of that through the emotion of the child. But she did come to a revelation with herself. She knew that her mother could only do so much

In “Two Kinds,” written by Amy Tan, Jing Mei defies her mother’s authority to become her own person. Jing Mei is the only daughter of two Chinese immigrants in America. Her mother places an exponential amount of pressure on Jing Mei, to meet her standards of success. As Jing Mei grows older she goes against her mother’s wishes and refuses to be placed in her mother’s mold of a perfect child. Jing Mei, a young girl being played like a marionette, becomes a young woman defying authority on a never ending road of self discovering.

Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds.” The Harbrace Anthology of Short Fiction 4th Ed. Jon C Scott, Raymond E. Jones, and Rick Bowers. 2006. 346-354.

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.

“Two Kinds” is a short story written by Amy Tan about a young girl attempting to please her mother, but also cultivate her own identity. Ironically, (or most likely intentionally), there seem to be two different types of themes driving the text: the cultural differences between an immigrant and a natural born citizen of America, and a mother and daughter. The mother is an immigrant from China that believes in the American dream; she believes that anyone can make it in American with enough hard work and practice. However, her daughter was raised in American and does not have the same ideology as her mother. Instead, she believes that people should have their own identity and thoughts, rather than trying to be like someone else or impress other people. Her mother refuses to think in such a way, and instead attempts to make the daughter into a child prodigy. Unfortunately, the daughter gives up trying to please her mother, and instead begins to live her own life, to the disappoint of her mother.

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

" 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

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.

"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is about the intricacies and complexities in the relationship between a mother and daughter. Throughout the story, the mother imposes upon her daughter, Jing Mei, her hopes and dreams for her. Jing Mei chooses not what her mother wants of her but only what she wants for herself. She states, "For, unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could be only me" (Tan 1). Thus this "battle of wills" between mother and daughter sets the conflict of the story.

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.

The Role of Media in the Society Media has always played a huge role in our society. For a long time media was one of the methods of controlling people and leisure. In ancient times when there was no newspapers and television, people used literature as source of information, some books like "the Iliad", and different stories about great kings, shows those people the information about them. Nowadays media is one of the main part of our lives and our society, because we use word media, to combine all sources of information. Average man is spending 4 hours a day on watching TV and reading newspapers.

New media has emerged from the print media. But its target audience is different from that of print media. Today, we have young readers getting attracted towards new media. This is because they feel that they really don’t need to waste their time reading when they