Amy Tan Two Kinds Summary

Lena describes her mother as being very timid and apathetic to her circumstances, especially after she loses a baby. Although she is always technically around, Ying-Ying is a very absent mother to Lena. Lena realizes this upon observing the life of her neighbor, a girl about her age named Teresa, who comes from a loud Italian family. Lena believes that Teresa’s mother is going to kill her, as they are always yelling at each other. However, upon talking to Teresa, Lena finds out that they yell at each other so much because Teresa can be reckless, and her mother cares about her well being.

Ying Ying never learned to speak her mind or to control the path of her own life. As she watches Lena make the same mistake of passivity, she internally struggles to tell Lena what she sees. “I want to tell her this: We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing, unheard and not hearing, unknown by others.” (Tan 67) Ying Ying lived through a terrible marriage that left her voiceless.

There daughters were always ashamed of and resented their mothers, especially while they were young. The daughters felt this way because of the way their mothers raised them. The mothers were very hard on their daughters, and pushed them towards successful, sometimes causing their daughter to feel overwhelmed. The mothers wanted their daughters to keep their Chinese heritage and culture, but also take advantage of the opportunities they have in America. The daughters were often ashamed of their Chinese heritage, and the way that their mothers acted.

Her personal experience is socially and theoretically constructed and emotions play an essential role in the process of identity formation. Her identity is not fixed, which is portrayed by inquisitiveness that her own mother and Aunt thought she was possessed, enhanced and made this story an enriching experience. The family is the first agent of socialization, as the story illustrates, even the most basic of human activities are learned and through socialization people

Tan expresses the life experiences of Chinese immigrants to the United States and attempts to depict the relationship of a mother and daughter through her significant piece of writing ‘The Joy Club’. Therefore, all these authors somehow portrayed their early struggles and their view point towards life from their literary

Nevertheless, as the story unfolds, Tan explains in more detail of the relationship of the mother and her daughter. In which the mother fully believed her daughter would become this great prodigy. Therefore, pressuring her daughter

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. A mother’s typical role in a mother-daughter relationship is one of guidance and leadership. Parents are responsible for teaching a child right from wrong and good from evil.

Lena is a caring woman who loves her family. She is understanding of the problems of others, and can look past their mistakes no matter the gravity of what they've done. Even though both of her children are grown adults, she still has the motherly drive to protect them as if they were still young children.

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" the mother and the daughter show how through generations a relationship of understanding can be lost when traditions, dreams, and pride do not take into account individuality. By applying the concepts of Julia Kristeva and other feminist thought, one can analyze the discourse Tan uses in the story and its connection to basic feminist principles. Jing-mei and her mother understand a symbolic language, however their semiotic language is very different. In fact up on realizing Jing-mei's "failure" to be a prodigy it causes her to reject that symbolic language and a double barrier is created to a healthy relationship with one another. By analytically approaching literature with psychoanalytical concepts, French feminists

Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

Because of this, most readers will not have a comfortable feeling upon her coming back home. In “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan is telling a story about the girl facing high expectations from her mother. Most readers may feel pitiful for her because her mother forces her to do things that she doesn’t like. Tan shows the readers that the girl has the same normal thinking ways as

Some information about the author: She was born in China and studied in a local Chinese school for a few years before switching to an International school. It provided her the chance to experience first hand the real meaning behind "broken English", and understand how non-standard varieties of English have their own rules and shape a community 's sense of identity. In this article, she shares her views on Amy Tan 's "Mother Tongue" and talks about the power of language.

Waverly admits with remorse she neglected her mother’s advice. Waverly wants to go to China for her honeymoon, but is indecisive. Because Waverly grew up in America, she is uncertain if China’s atmosphere will suit her. She is also afraid since she speaks very little Chinese. “ But now she wants to be Chinese… and I know it is too late” (Tan 289).

Lena’s memories of her childhood serve as characterization for her. The passage also serves to explain her necessity for freedom through anecdotes from her childhood. For example, the reason that she does not want to be married is because, “even the wild ones” turn into cranky old fathers. This is reflective of her cynical memories of home, saying that her father was a cross man. Lena’s refusal to be married was a radical notion at the time of the books publication.

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club is an amazing representation of what Chinese immigrants and their families face. The broad spectrum of the mothers’ and daughters’ stories all connect back to a couple of constantly recurring patterns. These patterns are used to show that how the mothers and daughters were so differently raised affected their relationships with each other, for better and for worse. To begin with, the ever-present pattern of disconnect between the two groups of women is used to show how drastically differently they were raised.