In Two Kinds, Jing Mei’s mother is convinced that America is the “Land of Opportunity” and that she should find the right avenue for her daughter’s talents. When she finally finds the right fit with her daughter becoming a skilled pianist, she immediately becomes obsessed with the idea. The mother believes the promise of coming to America, that the country itself holds infinite amounts of opportunity and so if she pushes Jing Mei to be successful, her daughter will not have to undergo the hardships that she had to endure back in China. However, Jing Mei’s mother forgets the fact that the high expectation that she realizes may not be what Jing Mei wants for her life and she may be forcing her down the wrong path. By looking from Jing Mei’s perspective, one can understand the stress and how torn she is from her standpoint. Initially, Jing Mei keeps trying to reach her mother’s expectation. However after seeing her “mother’s disappointed face once again,” she felt “something inside her start to die”. This is Jing Mei’s self-esteem and pride starting to die and also the responsibility that she put upon herself to reach her mother’s expectations. As a result, Jing Mei begins to stop following her mother’s instruction as a childish sort of way to protest her mother’s expectation. By looking through the narrator’s eyes, we can understand that Jing Mei never actually hates her mother, but her decision to become unresponsive to…
A quote from the story is, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (Tan 18). This quote shows that all of Jing-mei’s mother’s hopes lay in America. She faced many disappointments after losing her parents, home, husband, and daughters. She has lost a key part of her culture by losing most of her family. This will impact her views on America and Jing-mei. This will also be the cause of her high hopes. Another quote from the story is, “Only two kinds of daughters! Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (Tan 24). This quote shows that Jing-mei’s mother’s cultural identity influences her views on what she believes Jing-mei should be like. She believes that Jing-mei should be a prodigy. She also believes that Jing-mei should be obedient and always listen to what she says. Another quote from the story is, “For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me” (Tan 24). This quote could qualify the argument because Jing-mei’s views are different from what her mother taught her and believes. However, Jing-mei’s experience causes her to form her own cultural identity that is different from her mother’s. Jing-mei’s cultural identity causes her to believe that she cannot be a prodigy and that she can only be…
The novel ‘Chinese Cinderella’ is an autobiography written by Adeline Yen Mah, describing her childhood and younger teenage years as an unwanted daugther. Unlike most children, Adeline had a difficult time growing up. All throughout her life she was bullied and looked down upon by most of her family.…
The theme of “Two Kinds” is coming of age. For instance, “And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me- a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won 't. I won 't let her change me, I promised myself. I won 't be what I 'm not” (2). Jing Mei is a Chinese American girl who was locked in a struggle over her identity. As Jing Mei looks at herself in the mirror she realizes that she doesn’t want to turn into something her mother wants her to be. Jing Mei at the age where she doesn’t want to follow her mother’s wishes, she just wants to be herself.…
The plot focus on two themes: the American Dream and the tension between Jing-mei and her Mother. To Jing Mei’s Mother, “America is where dream do come true, pushes Jing-mei to have such a high expectations of her daughter by hoping that her daughter would be a great success one day. She has “no idea exactly where her daughter talent lies on”, but she thinks that her daughter has great capability. It is a matter of finding what exactly Jing-mei talent is. First, Mrs. Woo tries to transform into a child actress, then tries intellectual tests, lastly she thinks she might be a pianist (p.385-388).…
A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother's death, her mother's sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949. June has used her mother's regret as a weapon in a battle of wills focusing on what her mother wants her to be and what she wants. June wins, leaving her mother, Suyuan, stunned when she says she wishes she were dead like the twins. Although this scene characterizes the common struggle for power between mother and daughter, the story also illustrates…
The story Two Kinds is about a Chinese girl, Jing-Mei, who lives life trying to find herself under her over-bearing mother’s envisions and high expectations of what she feels Jing-Mei should become. The subject of the mother-daughter dynamic and lack of obedience is revealed from the beginning of the story; as well as the fact their relationship is rather conflicted. Throughout the story Jing-Mei is very obstructive to the ideas her mom puts forth. Her constant acts of disobeying and rebelling against her mom orders, express how the tension arose between Jing-Mei and her mom. The fact her mom had an extremely difficult life in China until she lost everything and moved to America, explains and sort of justifies why she was so obsessed with Jing-Mei excelling and making something of her, life in addition to her desire of wanting to be able to brag. Unfortunately, rather than allowing Jing-Mei to find something she was comfortable with and make an independent decision of what she wanted in her life, she forced activities and ideas on her which eventually resulted in Jing-Mei becoming rebellious. As Jing-Mei became rebellious, her mom implemented her…
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is about Jing Mei and her mother with a relationship of complexities due to the different opinions they have. Jing Mei’s mother believes that America is the land of opportunity and she pushes her daughter to become a prodigy while Jing Mei believes she cannot be anyone but herself. “Only two kinds of daughter, those who are obedient and those who follow their own…
The premise of this short story revolves around Suyuan unduly forcing her daughter, Jing-mei, to develop into a child prodigy. Mother Suyuan, obsessed with this notion, explores many hobbies which require a skill that her daughter will hopefully soon master. This presents…
Suyuan had to make the hard decision to leave her twin babies on the side of the road in hopes some kind stranger would take them in, that way she would not have to see them die. Suyuan searches for her babies all through her life in America, sending multitudes of letters; they finally get in touch with her two months after she has died. Because her mother is not alive to meet her children, Jing Mei takes her place and the trip enables her to finally recognize her Chinese ancestry. The minute she enters China she "feels different" and can realize that she is "becoming Chinese" (306). At fifteen Jing Mei believed she was only as Chinese as her "Caucasian friends" (306). Yet her mother counters thoughts, telling her: "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese" (306). Once in China Jing Mei decides her mother was right and she "has never really known what it meant to be Chinese" (307). She has never understood her mother or her heritage. This trip is the connecting link to understanding her life. She begins to feel natural in China, thinking to herself on the train: "I am in China It feels right" (312). Jing Mei sees the landscape, the people, the histories, and the families in China and sees where her mother was speaking from all of those years. She knows a "little percent" of her mother know (15). It becomes "obvious" to Jing Mei to see what "part of [her] is Chinese"; it is "in her family, in her blood"…
Jing-Mei’s mother demands absolute obedience from her daughter. When Jing-Mei objects to practise her piano, her mother chides her daughter that there are “only 2 kinds of daughter [and] only obedient daughter can live in [her] house” (Tan 142). The varying family values are that the mother wants her daughter to obey her with absolute obedience while the daughter believes in freedom and individuality. Thus, the daughters and mothers are in constant disagreement, which ultimately puts a strain on their relationship. To further understand the cause of their tensions as a result of the family values, Li Rui of ChildResearch.net concludes that “a Chinese parent greatly values his solitary child because of the "major investment" and "national resource" the child represents. Consequently, significant amounts of money and high expectations are focused upon the child in hopes that the child will excel in academics and other areas” (Jenkins). The mothers believe that because they have invested so much time and effort to develop their daughters’ potential, they expect their daughters to do their utmost to produce. However, the daughters value more on choice and individuality. Her identity is undermined because she is forced to abide by the Chinese culture. Eventually, constant feuding contributes to hostility and intolerance. Secondly, in the Chinese culture, sacrifice is necessary and expected. Chinese families tend to sacrifice everything for their love ones. Lindo Jong “once sacrificed [her] life to keep [her] parents’ promise [but] to [Waverly], promises mean nothing”. A daughter can be late for dinner “if she has a headache, [or] if she has a traffic jam, [or] if she wants to watch a favorite movie on TV” (Tan 49). The mother believes that promises and family time is the top priority over everything. However living in America…
Jing-mei (June) Woo, the character, is a symbol herself of Westernization of Chinese-Americans. Once she travels to China to visit her deceased mother, she realizes what Chinese culture is all about and what she has been culturally unaware of all this time. Jing-mei and the other daughters always identified themselves as Americans, but often doubted whether or not they should be speaking the Chinese language to keep their cultural identity alive within themselves. Additionally, Jing-mei is representative of Chinese and American comparisons in culture. The mothers in this novel maintained high expectations of their daughters, emphasizing filial obedience and giving constructive criticism all the time. These experiences clashed with American virtues of free speech and free will. After her visit to China, Jing-mei resolves the missing cultural values of herself and the Joy Luck Club and…
Tan’s main character Jing-Mei was self centered, bratty and very inconsiderate of the effects of her behavior had on the people in her life. She is buried so deep in her ways that it is not until she is an adult that she recognizes how messed up she is. Her mother’s character was forceful and pushy it was only natural that Jing-Mei rebelled against her. If she had only been gentle with her the results may have been different. To say the least both characters were deeply flawed and made for a…
There is no doubt that all mothers, under different cultural backgrounds, have a common wish, which is for their children to have a good future. To achieve this goal is very complex, especially if the family members are raised in different cultures. For a variety of reasons, conflicts will occur in the society at all levels, especially for immigrants. I think the key to understanding the story is to understand why such severe conflicts would happen between Jing-mei and her…
One character trait possessed by Jing-Mei in Two Kinds by Amy Tan is Stubbornness. For instance after the talent show Jing-Mei refuses to play the piano. Although her mother demanded her to practice she “wasn’t her slave anymore”. (207) Jing-Mei states “I had listened to her before and look what happened”. (207) Jing-Mei believes all her problems result from her mom’s decisions, and now refuses to do anything her mom says. Similarly Jing-Mei often chooses to assert her will over her mother’s. When her mother was demanding her to practice the piano she kept yelling no and showed resistance attempting to assert her will over her mother’s. Jing-Mei “didn’t get straight A's”, “didn't become class president” and “dropped out of college” because…