The Violin By Amy Tan Analysis

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

Tan shows that she is embarrassed in her family for their lacking of proper American manners. Although at the time she felt ashamed, the words spoken by her mother, “Inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame” became better understood later in life. In Amy Tan's work, the strong use of description of both the event that are occurring and Amy’s feelings about them, draws the reader in and makes them feel as if they are part of the action. Tan's Chinese-American culture and life stories are imprinted in her writing which gives the reader an opportunity to gain knowledge about the way of life in her family, friends, and even the Chinese culture. Tan's main purpose of writing is to inform and educate people about growing up as a minority in the American society.

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.

The main reason for the huge crack in the mother-daughter relationship is due to the joint culture that they share and their conflicting opinions on their joint cultures (Parini 294). Communication problems with their mothers, in Tan’s writings, are due to the daughters of Chinese mothers wanting to be more American than Chinese (Tan The Opposite of Fate…. 22). Mothers who have immigrated to America face language barriers and feel the pressure of their new culture (Wiener 22). To a Chinese American daughter, not only does the Chinese mother humiliate the daughter, but traditions that tie back to their past are also humiliating to them (Parini 292). After the death of her father, Tan’s relationship with her mother decreased and caused her to become more rebellious to her mother’s good intentions (Angel 26-27).

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.

A mother and daughter relationship can be either good or bad, but it’s definitely interesting. People say this kind of bond is unbreakable because of what they shared during pregnancy and birth, but others say this bond doesn’t last for long or maybe never really grew. In this short story “A Pair of Tickets” and poem “Hanging Fire” show a difference in each relationship.

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

A boy is dragged to the grocery store by his mom. Every aisle he passes he pulls something off the shelf and pleads to his mom, “Can I get this please, please, please, please?” Of course the mom says “no” and ignores the interests of her child. The boy becomes upset that her mom won’t let him get anything he wants and for the rest of the shopping trip, there is tension between the two. Similarly, in the passages Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez and Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, both narrators are having conflict with their parents. Lina and her father don’t see eye to eye; likewise, Izzy and her mother don’t see eye to eye over a problem. In Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, both narrators’ conflicts create tension between themselves and their parents.

Amy Tan uses rhetorical devices, such as anecdotes and parallel structure, to emphasise her uneasy attitude toward her mother's language and cultural identity in her essay “Mother Tongue”. Amy Tan grows up being ashamed of her mother’s “broken english”, but realizes the significance of the different englishes that she acquires. Tan’s anecdotes relish the significance of her mother's english. The recollection of these stories helps Tan be more considerate of the hardships her mother faces in her everyday life. By using parallel structure, Tan exaggerates her points and allows the reader to understand the importance of what she is saying, in addition to creating emphasis on the meaning in which she is trying to get across.

On October 26th 1962, one of the most known authors was born: Amy Chua. Amy Chua was born in Champaign, Illinois in the Unites States. She was raised as a catholic. Despite her having ancestry whom are Chinese, to be more specific Kokkein dialect, she proudly carries around an American identity. She was born in the year of the Tiger. In their culture, that represents people who are fearless, powerful, noble, and authoritative. “My family comes from southern China’s Fujian Province, which is famous for producing scholars and scientists.” Her parents migrated from the Philippines to the States before she was born in order to continue their educational studies. Her father, “Leon Ong Chua is an American electrical engineer and computer scientist. He is a professor in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department at the University of California, Berkeley.” His nationality is Holko and American. On the other side, the authors mother, Diana Chua was born in China and moved to the Philippines at the age of 2. She converted to Catholicism when she was in high school and received a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Santo Tomas. Amy has three sisters and they are all known to be successful in their own ways. Amy Chua has 2 daughters: Sophia and Louisa. With Chua’s Tiger parenting methods, Sophia seems to respect and listen to her mother which is the opposite than Lulu (Louisa). Lulu has more western characteristics. For example, she talks back and doesn’t respect her mother’s orders. Briefly, these aspects form her native identity.

The maternal instinct mothers have towards their daughters are strong ,but the bond between them is not always the same. In the memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua and the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, they portray their feelings about mother-daughter relationships through tone. Amy Chua’s frustrating yet caring tone, shows a closer bond rather than the scared, hateful tone Amy Tan illustrates. In the excerpt “The Violin” based on Amy Chua’s point of view as the mother, she is observing her daughter ,Lulu, during her violin lesson.

Parental interaction is very important in the growth of a child’s development of the brain, which has an effect on the child’s identity. The way parents act and interact will affect the child’s future decision-making and psychological development. Different types of interactions in an author’s childhood usually have big impacts on how they write throughout their career. It is also the same with any other child, the certain types of behavior from parent to child are directly correlated to the way they act or become in the future as they develop more. In the story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the author writes her personal experience of how her mother’s own personality and beliefs were projected onto her daughter to become a perfect idol such as being

In the first place, mother-daughter relations between Chinese mothers and ABC daughters are not easy ones in Tan's novels. They are always problematic. Mothers want to bring up

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

“Academic achievement reflects successful parenting”(Chua 5). Although this principle may not be true to many cultures, this is what the Chinese society is bond and live up to. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother communicates the different parenting style between the “Chinese mothers” and the Western parents.” In her memoir, Amy Chua discuss her unordinary and distinct ethos- by using diction and symbolism- to teach the audience the way of raising such stereotypically successful kids.