Parental Misguidance In Two Kinds And The Rocking Horse

Parental Misguidance Parents can cause serious problems in their children’s lives without intending to do so, a child can be called upon to repair a loss in his or her parent’s life and it effectively has a negative impact on the children. This is a apparent theme in the two stories “Two Kinds,” by Amy Tan and “The Rocking Horse Winner,” by David Lawrence. Whether the aspirations are from the death of a family member, as in “Two Kinds,” or a financial situation as in “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the effects are shown to be too much for a child to handle, causing a feeling of pressure to fill the void. This can rob them of a happy childhood and ruin the relationship with their parents, ultimately causing psychological problems or even death. In the story, “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan writes about a relationship between a mother and a daughter. The mother of Jing-mei wants her daughter to become famous, but Jing-mei just wants to be herself. The mother, moved to American after losing her entire family in China, and looked to restore her loss through her daughter. The mother tries to direct her daughter’s life starting at a young age, which destroys her daughter’s childhood. “At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple” (Tan pg 694). June’s mother pressured her to become a child prodigy, and the amount of stress placed on her by her mother
The house is haunted by the call for money and Paul asks his mother to explain why this is the case. She tells him that she has no luck and so the house is cursed by a shortage of money. As a result of this pivotal conversation Paul taps into a supernatural power, by using his rocking horse he can now find out the names of the winning horse in horse races. However, in doing so Paul tries too hard and he becomes desperately ill, he dies in his quest to win his mothers