me to be someone that i’m not”(Tan 231). In the story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan‚ a daughter explains the obstacles she has conquered in her childhood. In this story‚ Jing-mei‚ the protagonist has a rough and complicated relationship with her mother. Her mother has always wanted her daughter to be a prodigy. However‚ Jing-mei claims that she is not and will never be the extremely intelligent and talented daughter her mother saw in her. After a careful analysis of the story‚ the reader understands how Jing-mei’s
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Amy Tan writes as many hidden things as the number of her story in Two Kinds. As its complex structure suggests‚ the book tries to organize the the stories of mother and daughter with the intention of reaching the same destination: the daughter’s recovery of her cultural and ethnic identity as Chinese by overcoming the generational gap and the cultural differences between herself and her mother. The mother intend to hand over their "good intentions" and "usable past" in China to their daughter in
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Limited English In Amy Tans’s short store "Mother Tongue"‚ readers are introduced to Tan who is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother. While in school‚ Tan always excelled in mathematics and science‚ but felt she had a disadvantage with English and Literature. This disadvantage was caused because her limited English she had to use with her mother. As a young girl growing up Tan was embarrassed because of her mothers poor English "I know this for a fact‚ because when I was growing
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their food and manners differ from Americans; Amy Tan shows the contrast of cultures in “Fish Cheeks”. Chinese New Year food and manners are different from the way we’re raised as Americans. The Chinese prepare food for the holidays that many of us haven’t even tried in our lifetime‚ yet they eat it more than once a year. During the dinner‚
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A Fine Line between all Hopes and Joy; a review of ethnic and cultural differences of “The Joy Luck Club”‚ by Amy Tan This must be one of the most deep and heart-warming tale about four Chinese women and their daughters. Four generations of stories from eight different perspectives‚ experiencing ethnic and racial differences‚ in pre revolutionary China and decades later‚ in America‚ where their daughters are all grown up. Abandoned‚ repressed and separated from their loved ones‚ and unable to
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Analysis: The short story‚ "Two Kinds‚"� displays the relationship between a Chinese mother and a disobedient Americanized daughter. Jing-mei‚ a second-generation Chinese daughter‚ deals with her own internal conflict as well as an external conflict with her mother. The internal effort to find her true self is a lesson Jing-mei will have to discover‚ as she gets older. Being born of Chinese heritage‚ Jing-mei struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. She was never sure
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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
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Amy Tan’s short story‚ “Mother Tongue” is an admirable tale that discusses the implied meaning of languages and how language is not only a device of communication‚ but a social tool of measuring an individuals’ worth. Tan’s purpose was to show us how language separates‚ unites‚ or isolates those who don’t speak the common way as well as others. The differences between us and others do not make anyone less of a person. She tells us the different circumstances and struggles when her mother had been
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I think the main point Amy Tan is trying to make in A Mother’s Tongue is that words are more than just words‚ sometimes you have to look behind them and read in between to understand the true meaning. For example‚ her mother did not speak perfect English‚ but the points and ideas she was trying to get across are what really were important. Not all people who speak the English language speak it the same way. A language can be subdivided into any number of dialects which each vary in some way from
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Josh A. Robertson Prof. Villarreal 1302 4/8/13 Paper 3 “Two Kinds” Amy Tan In Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” Jing-Mei‚ the story’s main character‚ takes a stand against her mother. The story opens as she describes her childhood‚ which was full of pain and resentment caused by never becoming the “prodigy” that her mother desperately wanted her to be. Despite her best intentions‚ Jing-Mei always fell short of her mother’s expectations and one night‚ she made a pact to herself that she would
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