The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan portrays a dramatic relationship between a Chinese immigrant mother and her daughter. The mother comes off in the beginning of the story as a controlling, strict, demanding woman who is trying to show up her friend with whose daughter is the smartest. The mother Suyuan is not the shallow petty person her daughter makes her out to be. She really wants to show her daughter that with hard work and determination you can be whoever you want to be and do anything you want to do. It doesn’t matter if you are actually a genius or not. You don’t have to be in order to be successful you just have to want it bad enough and try your hardest.
In the beginning of the story the daughter, Jing-Mei, says that her mother “believed
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There are small hints throughout the story that piano really could’ve been her thing but because she was so determined to rebel against her mother she never gave herself a chance The mother is not what her daughter assumes she is and portrays her as. she has had a very difficult sorrowful life yet she still has a positive outlook for her life and her daughter she is optimistic. And there are many layers to her. Her actions have a greater meaning behind them than her daughter thinks. She is selfless she may brag to her friend auntie lindo but I think she does it for her daughters sake lindos daughter is a “genius” at chess and she just wants to show that if she triwed hard enough she can be too. Its more about effort will dedication trial and error pushing throught the tough trying times abnd getting back on the horse To have drive and will power witht that you can do anything. Its not as if the mother wanted her to do one specific thing she was just trying to help her daughter find something she could really be passionate about and if she wanted it bad enough she could have it. The daughter took this as she had to be great or her mother would be disappointed in
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 definition of an underachiever as stated by Webster is “one (such as a student) that fails to attain a predicted level of achievement or does not do as well as expected.” In the short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan, Ni’Kan is the queen of underachievers. She determines at a young age to become defiant to her mom. After experiencing disappointment from letting her mom down, Ni’Kan determined that she would not become a child prodigy and intentionally failed throughout her life.
At first, the daughter was to become a Chinese version of Shirley Temple. When that didn’t work, her mother told her that she would be attending piano lessons.
The title of this short story “Two Kinds” is describes the theme of this story. The mother had stated that there are only two types of daughters. “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind.” (pg 412) Jing Mei did not understand the truth or meaning behind that declaration until after her mothers death. Jing Mei realized that her mother only meant that she could be an obedient child by listening to her mother while at the same time follow her own heart and want her own prodigy in life. The last paragraph in this story also indicates the theme of two halves being equal to one. The two songs “perfectly contented” and “pleading child” was actually two halves of one song. Despite Jing Mei and her mother’s differences
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
The short story, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, portrays a conflict between a Chinese mother and daughter. Jing-Mei mother, Suyuan, comes to America after losing everything in China. When she came to America, this is where all her hoped lays. She believes that anything is possible and that America is the land of opportunity. Because of this, she has high hopes for Jing-Mei becoming a successful child prodigy. So, Suyuan tries everything she can to find Mei’s talent. First, she tries to make her daughter into a Chinese Shirley Temple, but doesn’t work. Then she tries intellectual tests that were from known magazines, but that doesn’t work either. Finally, Suyuan decides that Mei would be a pianist. Suyuan gathered up her money to buy Mei a piano and
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.
“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.
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.
In the short story Two Kinds by Amy Tan, she writes about a child named Jing-mei and her experiences with her mother pushing her to become a prodigy, all while her mother deals with being a Chinese immigrant that just moved to the United States. The two countries obviously share very different cultures and this plays a part in the story as she pushes Jing-mei to live ‘The American Dream’. Her mother strongly believes that in America you can be whatever you want to be. This, to some, may not be true, however this idea is strongly pushed in the Chinese culture. This is shown when Jing-mei fails to do any prodigious task that her mother puts in front of her which leads to her mother being ultimately disappointed in Jing-mei. Her failures ends up causing a huge argument between Jing-mei and her mother. The argument could be called the climax of the story. This confrontation wouldn’t have happened if Jing-mei’s mother didn’t have the huge idea that The American Dream is a legitimate thing, and Jing-mei’s mother wouldn’t have that perception of America if the Chinese culture didn’t present the United States as such a place. Based on Chinese culture and perspectives, there are numerous fallacies concerning the American Dream, and these are displayed in Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds”.
This story is about a mother and daughter who came to America to find a better life. They moved from china. In the story the mother wants to turn her daughter into a “prodigy” so she can be famous. The mother works as a housekeeper, and she “Believes you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (Tan 377). In this quote one can see that the mother believed, but just not for her; instead, she believed that her daughter will have the American life. After work she would collect old magazines from her job and look through them to find new talents for Jin-Mei. The mother was so eager to find at least one thing was good at but she came up short. By doing that Jin-Mei became very
As an adult, Jing-mei’s mother offers her the piano once more, and Jing-mei accepts the gift. Appreciating the encouragement and faith her mother bestows upon her Jing-mei decides to care for the piano. The piano piece
page three her mother slapped her and accused her of being ungrateful. In addition as her piano
”(Tan-page 193) Then she watches the shows and sees the Chinese girl is playing piano. She thinks Jing Mei can become famous with her hide talent, so she begins to force Jing Mei to learn piano “Two or three months went by without any mention of my being a prodigy. And then one day my mother was watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV… a little Chinese girl, about nine years old, with a Peter Pan haircut… Our family had no piano and we couldn't afford to buy one, let alone reams of sheet music and piano lessons…"Just
Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.