The Two Kinds By Amy Tan

While Amy Tan composes her novel out of distinct narratives, she interweaves the stories by means of recurrent themes and symbols. Having immigrated after the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by Congress, all four women lament the alienation from their daughters who have lost rapport with their mothers and their Chinese heritage by embracing the lifestyle and attitude of the American mainstream culture. In addition to the common themes of immigration and generational conflict, Tan interrelates her stories through the themes of food, dream, and language.

After reading “The New Second Generation,” by Protes and Zhou, the understanding of grow up in an immigrant family has been hard for most people, and some individuals are divided by the struggles of cultural demands and new unfamiliar environment. The second generation immigrants had a different experience than the first generation immigrants, whereas the second generation often time will be confused of what pathway they should follow, such as pleasing their cultural background yet trying to explore a new society. Even the second generation had dealt with conflicts due to the nature of their skin, such as descendants of European immigrants were treated better than the descendants of Mexico, Asia, or

The short story "A Pair of Tickets," authored by Amy Tan is a detailed analysis of issues that concern many people that are of a different descent but that have been residents or migrated to another country for a long time. The story was written in such a way that if one does not take cognizance of interpretation of stories; one may not really gesticulate what the author is trying to portray. The story was about a young American student on a journey for the first time to China with a plan of reuniting with her half-sisters for the first time after the demise of her mother. The writer made use of stereotypes and prevalence of internal conflicts in presenting the theme of the story to the readers for easy understanding. The Protagonist or

United States is a country with a big cultural diversity. Persons from all the countries, especially from the least developed ones, start a new life in this country with the only purpose of reach the American Dream. A better economic position, life style and educational opportunities for their family, are some of the facts that immigrates are looking for in America. All these privileges are not enough for them to forget their background. The reading Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and the movie The Namesake by Dir. Mira Nair, show two different stories about how the new family in America struggle with the parent’s culture and what American culture is. Immigrants, such as me, have to face many life changes when arriving for first time to America, such as different beliefs and ideologies, different language and new economic opportunities

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

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.

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 short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan uses many literacy devises in it such as conflict, foil, syntax, point of view, setting, and theme. These literary devices help show the conflict in the story between the daughter and mother and there cultural difference in being Chinese and a Chinese-American. The first two literary devices to talk about go together which are conflict and foil. Conflict being the mother wanting something different then what the daughter wants for herself.

“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.

Throughout the story, Jing-mei’s feelings toward her mother change in dramatic ways. When Jing-mei was a young girl, she idolized and looked forward to impressing her mother. Eagerly, Jing-mei retorts,

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 the short story “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, she keeps her focus mainly on the relationship of mother and daughter. Author describes their relationship in such a way which gives many lessons and morals from this short story. The main focus of the story is that the mother, who was an immigrant from China, once told her daughter the importance of their culture and heritage. Her daughter Jandale woo, who is almost completely ignorant of their heritage and culture, is thoroughly Americanized who doesn’t know much about her background. Mother also told her daughter that she will realize that cultures and heritages are important part of life. After her mother, dies she travels to China with her father and meets to their relatives. During her visit, she learns a lot about her background and culture which makes her realize that how culture and heritage holds an important place in everyone’s life.

It is unquestionable that numerous short stories in present-day include topics discussing the importance of family values and acknowledgement of culture. The main factor that sets the two stories “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” apart from countless is the fact that the two central characters are remarkably unique yet strikingly relatable. In the story “Flight Patterns” the main character William, is a Spokane Indian who embraces his culture and heritage. On the other hand, in “A Pair of Tickets” the central character, Jing-Mei, is a woman who genuinely did not regard herself as Chinese for a majority of her life. The values of family and importance of heritage are both exemplified in “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” however,

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.

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.