Two Kinds By Amy Tan Essay

Two Kinds by Amy Tan is the story everyone can relate to about being really close to your parents and wanting to do everything with them when your young and then growing up and not wanting to be around your parents at all. As a child Jing mei started off her life with her mother in America. As Jing mei was growing up, everyday her and her mother would try to find out what Jing bei was a prodigy at. Little did they know that all this time they were spending together trying to find this hidden talent would soon be the demise of their relationship.

When Jing mei was growing up her mother thought that anyone could be anything in america. She comments, “ My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in america” (Tan 220). This mindset that the narrator's mother had was the fuel for their prodigy hunt. Every single day Jing mei and her mom would spend the whole day together looking through magazines trying to find a prodigy for Jing mei. “My mother got these magazines from people whose house she cleaned” (Tan 222). Soon enough Jing mei and her mother's relationship changed for the worst. All of a sudden Jing mei started to hate what her mom was doing, trying to find a prodigy, so she stop trying. After this incident Jing mei and her mother would never be

In the beginning, the text was mainly focused on everything that Jing mei and her mother did together and how amazing it was. “In fact, in the beginning, i was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size” (Tan 221). After the change though the text mainly only focused on Jing mei alone. “ I didn't get straight A’s, I didn't become class president. I didn't get into stanford, I dropped out of college” (Tan 232). Jing mei continuously failed her mother but at the same time she was failing herself more over and over