Two Kinds By Amy Tan Essay

In Two Kinds, Amy Tan tells the story of Jing-mei, who as a child was given the song “Pleading Child” to practice. This song describes who she was as a child, desperate to stay the way she is, and pleading with her mother to love her the way she is, not the way she wants her to be. “Perfectly Contented,” paints a different picture one that is viewed looking back by someone who has more experience. This song is longer because it takes more time to learn how to be perfectly content with one’s life. In the story, Amy Tan writes, “After I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song (p.552).” She cannot be one without the other she is both the pleading child and perfectly content, without them both she is not her true self. In this story, Amy Tan portrays how the expectations of Jing-mei’s mother affect her sense of self. How one’s self-image can change whether they are basing it on other people’s opinion of them, a rigid …, and a flowing view of themselves that changes with time. In the beginning of the story, Jing-mei based her sense of self and self-worth on her mother’s expectations. She pushed herself to succeed so her mother would be proud of her. She built up the idea in her head that her mother wanted her to be the
She even viewed this as a privilege, “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn’t get straight As. I didn’t become class president. I didn’t get into Stanford. I dropped out of college (p.550).” A strong sense of self can lead to contentment in life. She did not need to fill other people’s expectations for her, since she was fulfilling her own expectations. In the end, her mother’s expectations were separate from who she was and she could see them as they were her mother pushing her to be the best she could