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 …show more content…
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
Throughout her childhood life her mother, Suyuan, was continuously pushing her to be her best. Jing-Mei purposely tried to fail at everything to prover to her mother that she could never become a great and famous person. Then after a piano recital that went horridly wrong, her and her mother had an argument and their relationship was never the same. Many years later Suyuan tried to give Jing-mei the piano that she had as a child. She refused the offer, but than a year later her mother died and Jing-Mei was cleaning out her mother’s house and decided to play the piano and she was surprised that she still knew how.
With the mother pushing her this much it makes her very strict. She doesn’t really give Jing a choice. This also made Jing feel like her mother didn’t like her the way she was. “’Why don’t you like me the way I am?’ I cried.
At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings
Through analyzing the stories about their lives’ hardships and experiences, it is revealed that Suyuan’s American Dream is achieved by Jing-mei by going back to her own country, retrieving her two sisters, and makes the family whole again. The story of Suyuan and Jing-mei chasing their American Dream teaches us a lesson: Never gives up your dreams casually. One day, you will be thankful for your persistence, when the dream comes
In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, we are introduced to Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei “June” Woo. As with any relationship, there is conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter, as it seems that Jing-Mei doesn’t understand her mother’s Chinese culture and ambitions. In the Chinese culture, women are seen as inferior and often lack basic rights such as the right to marriage or financial holdings, thus deprived of their potential. This is why the rights in the U.S. are seen as privileges to Chinese women, among other minorities, and why Suyuan endeavored for her daughter to become a prodigy and excel in anything and everything. Yet as Jing-Mei was forced into this ideal, and the more her mother tried to enforce this idea, the further she begun to despise her mother for attempting to turn her into a “fraud”.
“For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me.” (Tan 24). With this statement you can see that she does not agree with her mother. Jing-Mei’s Mother was raised in Chinese culture, therefore she is very strict and demanding to Jing-Mei to do what she wants. From doing a chore, to hobbies or even Jing-Mei’s passion.
This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication. One of the difficulties between Jing-Mei and her mother is their different cultural backgrounds, which is supported by two points from the story. Firstly, Jing-Mei and her mother both disagreed on the opportunities that existed in America. According to Singer, Amy Tan uses “two entirely
At her first glance at them, she knew exactly who they were because of their resemblance to their mother. However, as she approached them, she realized that there were no evident similarities in features between them and her mother, but that the similarities she noticed at first ran deep in their blood: they were family. And at this brief moment of realization, the most perceptible change in Jing-Mei took place. She said, “Now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious.
Both her and her mom want her to be a prodigy of Beyonce. Both of their parents want them to become a prodigy of somebody. Jing-Mei’s mom wants her to be a prodigy of Shirley Temple. One other allusion in “Two Kinds” and modern day society is Peter Pan. Peter Pan never wants to grow up and neither does Jing-Mei.
Regardless, her mother still is persistent on Jing Mei becoming a prodigy, despite her passionless performance and her family’s negative reaction. In return, Jing Mei becomes angry at her mother, and will do anything to change her mind. Screaming, “I wish I were dead! Like them.”, her mother freezes, disappointed in her daughter, and quits Jing Mei’s piano classes. On Page 28-29, Jing Mei’s perspective on the world becomes more apparent: “For unlike my mother, I didn’t believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me.”
Family in Chinese Culture As shown in Amy Tan's short stories A Pair of Tickets, Immortal Heart, and Two Kinds, one can see the importance of family in Chinese culture. In the piece A Pair of Tickets, it is shown how hard Jing-mei's mother Suyuan looks for the twin babies she is forced to leave behind. Her effort is shown when Jing-mei's father recalls the travels, saying, "We went to many different cities, back to Kweilin, to Changsha, as far south as Kunming. She was always looking out of one corner of her eye for twin babies, then little girls" (Tan, A Pair of . . . " 163, 164).
personal satisfaction. Jing-Mei struggles with the difficulty of choosing between her desires and her mother’s. Throughout the short story, she wants to live up to her mother’s expectations, but she is unhappy because she is being involuntarily forced into tasks. This brings up the idea for Jing-Mei to assert her independence to find her own path. She realizes that all this hard work she’s been doing is getting her nowhere, and decides that she is done following her mom’s instructions mindlessly.
In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, Jing Mei's mother wished for her to succeed in life and to have a better life than her mother. Her mother expected Jing Mei to exceed all of society's social standards and expectations. Jing Mei's mother has big hopes for her daughter once she comes to America from China. The mother understands all of the potential and opportunities in America and expects her daughter Jing Mei to excel in American society. “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted in America”.
As Jing-Mei begins to grow older, she begins to realize who she is and she knows that she is not the person her mother intends for her to
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.