Parenting In Amy Tan's Two Kinds

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..

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,

Amy Tan was born in China on February 19, 1952. She was one of three children to her parents. Amy was born to her mother’s second husband. Later on, her family escaped China on the last boat before the Communist takeover of China in 1949. Her mother left behind three other kids from a previous marriage. Amy finished high school in Switzerland, and fought with her mom the whole time. She went to college at a Baptist college. She then defied her mother by leaving that college and following her boyfriend to San Jose State University. She further defied her mother by abandoning her pre-medical degree for an English and linguistics major. She eventually married her boyfriend, Louis DeMattei, and they moved to San Francisco. Amy Tan started to repair her relationship with her mother, once she was deathly ill and in the hospital. Amy made a promise to take her mom to China to find the children that she left behind. This allowed for Amy to finish her book and get closer to her mother. She went on to write many books and essays after her time with her mother. What caused that dramatic of a change in major for Amy? What caused the rift between her and her mother?

However, with her alcoholic dad who rarely kept a job and her mother who suffered mood swings, they had to find food from her school garbage or eat expired food they had previously when they had the slightest bit of money. In addition, when bills and mortgage piled up, they would pack their bags and look for a new home to live in, if they could even call it a stable home, since they would be on the move so often. Jeanette needed a dad who wouldn’t disappear for days at a time, and a mom that was emotionally stable, but because she didn’t have that, she grew up in an environment where she would get teased or harassed for it. Jeanette suffered so much, that even at one point, she tried convincing her mother to leave her father because of the trouble he had caused the family already. A child should be able to depend on their parents for food and to be there for them when they need it, and when that part of a child’s security is taken away, it leaves them lost and on their own, free and confused about what to do next.

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.

What makes the perfect parent? Countless magazines and websites strive to answer the question but often possess differing opinions on what techniques and parenting styles will foster the ideal child. In Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders grow up in polar opposite households. While both practice Judaism, their separate sects often highlight differences in their respective upbringings. Literature mimics real life and while reading, I found myself comparing the boys’ friendship to that of my closest friend and I. Despite the drastic divergence between time periods and settings, post-World War II New York and modern day Suburbia, Reuven and Danny mirror my best friend, Abby, and I. Though disputes can arise, contrasting

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.

Jeannette talks about how her parents at times were ignorant at how they were parenting. For example, Jeannette states countless situations in the book where she felt excluded or neglected. There was a situation in the book where she was cooking or preparing herself hotdogs and she got her dress on fire. The flames grew on her rapidly and the injuries became severe; soon after that her mother and father expressed to her that they were little to no concerned about their daughter. In the book it states, “Mom, in an unnaturally calm voice, explained what had happened and asked if we could please have a ride to the hospital. The woman dropped her clothespins and laundry right there in the dirt and, without saying anything, ran for her car” (9-10). This just shows the mother wasn’t the least bit scared for her daughter’s life, she didn’t even panic or react the way a mother should. With that being said, we can even notice that the neighbor was more affected by the situation than that of the mother. This is the earliest stories Jeannette can recall, which is mentioned in her book, and all the stories and memories after that only go to show the neglectful lifestyle she had to endure. It is really a sad reality of this woman’s life. However, Jeannette Walls is now a successful author, and journalist in New York, is one of the few people in this world that has made a successful life from a horrible and neglectful

“It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me” (Tan 327). Growing up with a mother like mine, disappointment came very easily. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” the mother and daughter were always on edge because the mother expected too much and the daughter could never meet up to the standards that she had set. After thirty years went by after their big falling out the mother gives the daughter a piano as a sign of forgiveness, but the daughter has a remaining feeling of guilt for a long time. In my story, my mother expected a lot from me, and and my big mistake that changed our lives forever was forgiven, but I will carry that shame forever.

"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”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

“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.

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

Doing so, she uses her grandchildren as a ploy to get her way, setting aside the wishes of her family. Speaking to O’Connor’s mother’s self centered behavior and lack of care for others, even in the face of adversity.

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