Parental Expectations In Only Daughter And Amy Tan

From a young age, our interactions with our parents play an instrumental role in how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid exhibits the relationship between an Antiguan mother and her daughter in a patriarchal society where the list of rules and regulations for women is exhaustive and almost never-ending. By analyzing the unique and often tense dynamic between the mother and daughter, “Girl” showcases the direct influence mothers have on their children, and how traditional and patriarchal customs can influence that relationship. The main themes are represented by the subjects the mother spends the most time on as well as the overall tone of the piece and how it relates to the mother-daughter

A mother’s words are the ones that ring loudest in a child’s ear, are passed down from generation to generation, and the one’s that hold a special place in a child’s memory and heart forever. Expectations and guidelines are set at a young age. Morals and values are learned throughout the years, and life lessons are taught through the wisdom passed down from a mother to a daughter. Every mother has a wish for their daughter to be the best they can be. But at what point does instruction and wisdom become simply words that have been said one too many times? The short story “Girl,” written by Jamaica Kincaid is presented to the reader as a list of instructions from a mother to a daughter on how to live life to the

On the other hand the main focus on Tan’s story is to show the beautiful and passionate side of her mother that people can't see. Tan describes how all of the English’s that she grew up with, normal English and "mother tongue" English, has shaped her first outlook of life. She writes, "But to me, my mother's

She wants the audience to know right away that even though she is about to tell you the story of a difficult childhood, she did reach her goal in the end. After making this statement, Tan dives into her past and how she came to be where she is today. Her mother is the next most important point of discussion. Her mother influenced her writing style as well as her beliefs about her culture and heritage. ?Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). The broken up English her mother uses is the next issue Tan focuses on. ??everything is limited, including people?s perceptions of the limited English speaker? (Tan, 2002, p. 36). Lastly, she talks about her education and the role it had on her deciding what she wanted to do with her life. ?Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me? (Tan, 2002, p. 39). By structuring the essay in order of importance, Tan reinforces her message that you can be anything you desire even with a different culture than the norm.

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, truly wants what is best for her daughter, but refuses to acknowledge that her daughter does not want to be a prodigy or play the piano. Her daughter only wants to live her own life and does not understand the success her mother is trying to push on her. Every mother and daughter relationship is different, but the most classic type is the “mother knows best trope.” Of course, if the story was presented in China, rather than America, the daughter may have fallen into her mother’s life path, “"Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!" (Tan pg #). However, since her daughter was born in America, she was given an opportunity to be who she wanted to be, because of America’s new dream of independence and

The line between being an acceptable and unacceptable parent is often blurry and is seen on different perspectives when it comes to class, culture, and generation differences. Based on the two stories of Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds” and Tillie Olsen’s, “I Stand here Ironing” we see these two perspectives that derive from different maternal upbringings of the children in the stories. What is found between them is the conflict of being too little or heavily involved in a child’s life has had more negative outcomes during their childhood than positive.

The article Oh Mom,Oh honey:Why Do you Have To Say That?” is written by a linguist, Deborah Tannen, who researched the complex relationship between mothers and their daughters. As Tannen writes this piece she experiences a dramatic change between her and her mother.Deborah Tannen’s purpose was to publicly broach her findings to a general audience substantially people everywhere could relate to and have a better understanding of both perspectives of a mother and daughter.

As an adult, Tan understands that her mother’s English is the language of intimacy. She now understands that her “mother’s expressive command belies how much she actually understands” Her mother reads “The Wall street Journal” and converses with their stockbroker on matters Tan doesn’t comprehend. It becomes evident that her initial

Marianne Williamson once said, “All of us wish we’d had perfect childhoods, with a mother and a father who modeled ideal parental attitudes and taught us to internalize the tenets of self-love. Many of us, however, did not.” When faced with lack of parental love, its is often easy to feel powerless, since not everyone has the parents that they hope model “ideal parental attitudes” and teach them “self-love.” However, if a person stands up against their parents to try to get their attention and find that missing love somewhere else, they can gain a sense of power. This is what happens in the short stories “Autumn Rose” by Kevin Kyung and “Simple Arithmetic” by Virginia Moriconi. In Autumn Rose, a high school Korean girl by the name of Rose yearns for attention, especially from her strict, old-fashioned parents. Realizing that in order to get their appreciation she needs to rebel against them in order to earn a sense of power back, Rose convinces herself that she falls in love with an older white boy named Steve, knowing her father would greatly disapprove. Similarly, Stephen seeks his father’s attention and notices that subtly accusing his father for his parent’s divorce and rebelling against his father’s wishes is the only way he can earn the respect that he needs and yearns for. Both texts show that the best way to regain a sense of power due to lack of parental love is finding that love somewhere else, even if it means resorting to rebellion in order to gain attention to

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

In their articles, Chang Rae-Lee and Amy Tan establish a profound ethos by utilizing examples of the effects their mother-daughter/mother-son relationships have had on their language and writing. Lee’s "Mute in an English-Only World" illustrates his maturity as a writer due to his mother’s influence on growth in respect. Tan, in "Mother Tongue," explains how her mother changed her writing by first changing her conception of language. In any situation, the ethos a writer brings to an argument is crucial to the success in connecting with the audience; naturally a writer wants to present himself/herself as reliable and credible (Lunsford 308). Lee and Tan, both of stereotypical immigrant background, use their

This essay titled mother Tougue is written by Amy tan who is the author of novels, children’s books, essay and memoir. And it was first delivered as a talk at a symposium on language in san Francisco in 1989.

Amy Tan wrote an article titled "Mother Tongue", which is focused around her mother's English and how it was not considered perfect. She reflects on how society treated her mother as well as how she personally treated her as well, not by her intelligence, but how she spoke. The focus of the article is surrounded by the idea and goal of judging those before you get to know them. She shows this by introducing the main topic at the beginning of her article, as is states “Don't judge a book by its cover...or someone's intelligence by her English” which sets the stage for the article (Tan, 2006). The article, "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan has a theme of not judging others by the way the speak is strongly supported in Amy Tan’s article because she uses her own personal

An article by Amy Tan written in 1990 titled “Mother Tongue”. Amy Tan sadly narrates a story about her mother explaining the way she was treated by others because of her wrong and weak pronunciation for the words. Tan called her mother’s language “Broken”. Her mother was treated according to her way in speaking and pronouncing the English’s words. Also, people thought that Amy’s mother was stupid, so they was not respecting her. The purpose of this story was to inform Tan’s readers her beliefs that this language brings her closer to her roots and heritage. This “Broken” English brings her closer to her mother and gives her that well to build a loveable connection with her.