Two Kinds Literary Analysis

Parent/Child Conflicts in ""Two Kinds""

Many conflicts occur between parents and children because parents may push the child too hard, the child may feel an urge to purposely defy the parents, and also because of the parent or child misunderstanding each other. When these problems come about parents and children have different ways of dealing with these conflicts. Some of the strategies used to deal with these conflicts such as rebellion, defiance, and not cooperating are exhibited in "Two Kinds".

In "Two Kinds" Jing-mei's mother continuously pushes Jing-mei too hard to do things she doesn't want to do and as a result Jing-mei stops cooperating with her mother. For example, in the story Jing-mei's mentions how every night at dinner Jing-mei's mother would present her with test that she got from magazines that had stories of
Jing-mei's mother came up with the idea to put her daughter into piano lessons. Since Jing-mei was already tired of trying to be this great prodigy Jing-mei's mother wanted her to be, she purposely did poorly and didn't practice seriously during her piano lessons. So one day Jing-mei's mother enrolls Jing-mei's into a talent show (Tan 325). Jing-mei is expected to play certain piece and in the end she does poorly. Then a few days go by and Jing-mei's mother tells Jing-mei to go practice on the piano as she usually would. Jing-mei defies her mother by refusing, Jing-mei and Jing-mei's mother get into it, and then Jing-mei's comes out and says "I wish I were dead! Like them (Tan 327)." Jing-mei's says this comment in reference to Jing-mei's mother's two dead twin daughters from another marriage. In the following years Jing-mei continuously purposely disappoints her mother by not getting straight A's, not becoming class president, and dropping out of