Two Kinds By Amy Tan Literary Analysis
In "Two Kinds," Amy Tan writes a coming of age story about a young girl in
San Francisco and the cultural differences she has with her Chinese mother. The result is conflict between the two from the girl 's inability to live up to her mother 's expectations. The mother left
China after losing everything and sees America the place where you can have it all. She attempts to make her daughter into a prodigy against her daughter 's will. After years of clashing the daughter disappoints her mother by performing horribly during a piano recital amongst family and friends. After the recital there is an argument between the two which results in the mother giving up on the daughter becoming a prodigy. In this story, Tan 's central idea is the maturation …show more content…
Jeng-mei is determined to show she has no talent and act bored: "So now on nights when my mother presented her tests, I performed listlessly, ... I pretended to be bored. And I was"(461). The narrator does this with hopes that her mother will give up and allow her to be her ordinary self. The mother begins to lose interest in the future prodigy until she watches the Ed Sullivan Show. The mother is fascinated by a young Chinese girl playing piano and decides she wants Jeng-mei to learn. The narrator states her mother is "entranced by the music" and "the mesmerizing quality"(462). Jengmei becomes angry after she hears a conversation between her mother and a friend, Lindo long.
They are both "talking in a loud bragging tone of voice so others can hear" '(464). The mother / ' brags of her daughter hearing "nothing but music, and you can 't stop her natural talent" (464).
Jeng-mei is "determined to stop her foolish pride"(464). This shows an external conflict between the mother and daughter. Jeng-mei plays piano with nervous excitement but fails
San Francisco and the cultural differences she has with her Chinese mother. The result is conflict between the two from the girl 's inability to live up to her mother 's expectations. The mother left
China after losing everything and sees America the place where you can have it all. She attempts to make her daughter into a prodigy against her daughter 's will. After years of clashing the daughter disappoints her mother by performing horribly during a piano recital amongst family and friends. After the recital there is an argument between the two which results in the mother giving up on the daughter becoming a prodigy. In this story, Tan 's central idea is the maturation …show more content…
Jeng-mei is determined to show she has no talent and act bored: "So now on nights when my mother presented her tests, I performed listlessly, ... I pretended to be bored. And I was"(461). The narrator does this with hopes that her mother will give up and allow her to be her ordinary self. The mother begins to lose interest in the future prodigy until she watches the Ed Sullivan Show. The mother is fascinated by a young Chinese girl playing piano and decides she wants Jeng-mei to learn. The narrator states her mother is "entranced by the music" and "the mesmerizing quality"(462). Jengmei becomes angry after she hears a conversation between her mother and a friend, Lindo long.
They are both "talking in a loud bragging tone of voice so others can hear" '(464). The mother / ' brags of her daughter hearing "nothing but music, and you can 't stop her natural talent" (464).
Jeng-mei is "determined to stop her foolish pride"(464). This shows an external conflict between the mother and daughter. Jeng-mei plays piano with nervous excitement but fails