Two Kinds Jing Mei Summary

Throughout the world, every single person has culture. Culture consistently informs how people view the world and others. When meeting new people or experiences something new, their culture influences how they react. Culture dictates people to do certain things in certain situations; certain things that may seem non important or socially acceptable to some people, may insult or confuse others. Even small, seemingly insignificant things like morning routines can and are influenced by a person’s culture. People often go into new environments with things from their own culture to share, as shown in the story Indians fathers plea. In this story a father is asking the teacher for acceptance of his son as someone who is special. His son is a Native American, and growing up he was influenced by their traditions. His teacher labeled him slow and is treated differently by other people. His father explains he is different “My son, wind wolf is not an empty glass coming into your class to be filled he full basket coming into a different with something special to share”.
In the story Two Kinds Jing-mei decides to not listen to her culture (her mom) but to embrace the American way. Her mom didn’t want her daughter to be poor growing up like she was. She was attempting to get her daughter to be something more than herself. Jing-mei wanted to leave her culture and wanted to make her own choices. Jing-mei refused to be changed by her mom. “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself.” In our own experiences we have to make our choice to embrace or leave our