Summary Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan

Two kinds, a short story by Amy Tan, explores the relationship between an immigrant mother and her first generation daughter. The mother, who has faith in the American dream, values the belief that to be happy, you have to be famous and change yourself; Ni Kan, the daughter, yearns for a personality of her own. Tan characterize these women as foils to each other. As a result of them being foils, they’re relationship is strained and they never have a close bond until Ni Kan grows older. Tan uses these characters to show that with each generation the American dream is changed. Amy Tan demonstrates that different generations of people have different views on the American dream through Ni Kan ‘s mother dream of fame and fortune for her child, and Ni Kan’s dream of finding an identity. Tan believes the cause of the barrier between mother and daughter is due to their foiled dreams.

Nineteen Minutes is Jodi Picoult’s staggering and heartbreaking story about the devastating aftermath of a small town tragedy. The story begins in the town of Sterling, New Hampshire, following the lives of the citizens on an ordinary day. That all changes when there is a shooting at Sterling High. Throughout the story, there are flashbacks to before and after the killings and the reader learns about the history of each of the characters, and how that has influenced their journey throughout the novel. We are shown the once close relationship between Josie and Peter, and also about Peter’s rocky home life where Peter is often outshined by his older brother whose death creates a rift that puts him even farther from his parents. . The jumps back in

Shame and guilt can go hand in hand, as seen in; Flight, The Glass Castle, and The Joy Luck Club. As the three novels progress, many of the characters suffer with inner shame and guilt. While the characters suffer with these things, it somehow seems to shape and change them. Through the characters hardships and struggles, the theme of shame and guilt emerges.

Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak is an interesting children’s picture book. The main character is a little boy named Max, who has a wild imagination. He uses all five senses as well as thought and his actions to express his personality as well as how he reacts and interacts with his surroundings. Max’s id, ego and super-ego are greatly shown in this book through the way that the author has portrayed him. Not only is this book a children’s story, but it can also be perceived as a life lesson. Many people go through times in their lives when they make drastic decisions right away, such as leaving home. One may enjoy it for the rest of their lives or only for a little while, just like Max who felt lonely after having fun with the monsters. In this case, people end up going home to be with their family where they are not lonely, and can have more time before making a final decision of what should happen next in their life. Id, ego and super- ego is greatly portrayed in this

Culture is the one thing in this world that is truly diverse. All walks of life, all around the world, live differently in their own unique way based off of their beliefs. Amy Tan, the author of The Joy Luck Club, experienced this separation in her own life with her mother who was a Chinese immigrant. Amy being raised in America was influenced by a different culture than her mother, which at times put a wedge between their relationship. Along with that Amy was born in a dynamically different generation than her mother. Amy Tan took her real life experiences and molded them into a novel with many different, but connecting short stories about the relationship between Chinese immigrant mothers and more Americanized daughters. In this essay, I

Writer and novelist Amy Tan in her essay “Mother Tongue”, narrates that speaking “broken” or “fractured” English is not a bad thing. Tan’s purpose is to show the readers her interpretation of different Englishes and what affect her mother had on her.

The movie “Real Women Have Curves” tells the story of Ana Garcia, a high school graduate on her way to pursuit the American dream. Ana lives in barrio in Eastern Los Angeles, she is a brilliant student whom teacher really admire. Although she wants to go to college, her family, especially her mother, Carmen, tells her not to. In her mother’s eyes, Ana is a spoiled child who only thinks of herself. As the movie rolls along, the conflict between Ana and Carmen grows larger and Carmen turns into Ana’s biggest obstacle in achieving her American dream. Through this movie, it is important to take notice of how gender, education, class and traditional culture can influence a person’s journey to achieve the American dream.

Truman Capote characterizes the Village of Holcomb is a vast, desolate place where nothing of significance occurs very often to foreshadow and bring to light the drast contrast between that and the fact that the reader knows the horrific murder takes place there. He promptly builds up the tone of the Holcomb as a picturesque place where everything is perfect and nothing ever goes wrong. Capote sets it up as a ‘perfect’ place only to later poke cracks in its perfection, exposing its flaws. Ultimately the exposure of these flaws will lead up to the murder, the one drastic twist that eventually crumble the entire foundation of the perfect little village.

In Two Kinds, a short story by Amy Tan, it is about a mom who pushes her daughter and strives for her to be some type of prodigy. The mom came from a tough background, moving to San Francisco after losing her parents, her family home, her first husband, and two twin baby girls. She “believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America”, so she didn’t regret her decision. The mother was a housecleaner, and wanted June to be worth more than that. So she was obsessed with attempting to make June a prodigy. The mother was watching a show that had piano music, and wants June to start playing piano. She exchanges housecleaning services for piano lessons for June. June doesn’t want any of

As seen by the mothers’ and daughters’ behavior towards each other in The Joy Luck Club, it is difficult to preserve one’s culture when one is exposed to a new environment or country. With a difference of two distinct generations between them, the four main pairs often come across cultural collisions. Other than facing the age gap, these mothers and daughters also have to deal with a language and communication barrier. Already, at the beginning of the story, Jing-Mei Woo is able to understand how the mothers of the “Joy Luck Club” are displeased with their daughter’s rejection of their Chinese culture. She speaks to herself, admitting that “they are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America.

The Woman Warrior is a “memoir of a girlhood among ghosts” in which Maxine Hong Kingston recounts her experiences as a second generation immigrant. She tells the story of her childhood by intertwining Chinese talk-story and personal experience, filling in the gaps in her memory with assumptions. The Woman Warrior dismantles the archetype of the typical mother-daughter relationship by suggesting that diaspora redefines archetypes by combining conflicting societal norms.

In the book “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, it’s about a little girl who is pressured by her mother to become something she doesn’t want to be. Jing- mei , the daughter, is forced to become a prodigy(child actress), by her mother, and she doesn’t want to be one. In the story, Jing- meis’ mother uses allusions such as Shirley Temple to push her into becoming a prodigy. Although at first Jing- mei is excited to become a prodigy, she later realizes its something she just doesn’t enjoy doing. Consequently, the uses of allusion in the story help Jing- mei discover to not be a prodigy and that what her mother wants for her is not always important. However, some of the things her mother showed and did got her excited to become this.

“The ways in which the characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A raisin in the sun, are affected by racial imbalances and respond to the injustices engendered by such inequities are solely influenced by their gender.” I agree with this statement to an extent. Although it is correct that gender plays a big role in this play, there are other factors to consider.

The key to success is working hard to reach the goal. The workmanship and struggle for success can be called the American Dream. The idea of an American Dream has existed for a long time. The proof is its being a hidden theme for many American Literature stories. In Two Kinds by Amy Tan, there is an underlying theme of the American Dreams and there are different types of an American Dream .That is why the story should be included in the text books for the high school students to read. In most literature books there are many American Dream stories, but none of them have a modern theme that is even close to Two Kinds. Thus the story should be included in the textbook for students to read.

Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment. However, this determination sometimes appears to be obsessive to the point of running her daughter’s life for her. Regardless, she is only trying to help, as she encourages Jing Mei by asserting “‘You can be best anything.’” (1). Because of this, it suggests that although she is very harsh on her daughter at times, it is only to make sure that Jing Mei can use her full potential and not end up losing everything like her