developing years under the guidance of their parents or guardians. They affect how we think‚ how we feel‚ and how we act. These are among the people who hold the greatest influence. Amy Tan’s ’Two Kinds’ and Jamaica Kincaid’s ’Girl’ both deal with the relationship between a young girl and the guiding force in her life. Amy Tan tells of a mother’s expectation for her daughter to be a child prodigy. Jamaica Kincaid tells of an unknown person describing to a girl how to be a ’good’ girl. Both essays
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In the story “Two Kinds”‚ Tan portrays how excessive parental control alienates a child and makes them insecure causing them to rebel against their parent’s beliefs and standards. The mother lives her dreams through her daughter. She moved to America from China because she believed that anything is possible there. She wanted to give her daughter everything she did not have as a child which is a chance to be successful and have a good life. The mother expected her daughter to be a prodigy. She would
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parents. Putting high standards and limitations on a child leaves them torn between succeeding in what their parents wish (usually a doctor‚ lawyer‚ etc.) or allowing exploration and discover the path they would enjoy and succeed in. In the United States‚ children of immigrants are put under a lot of pressure to succeed because of the vast numbers of opportunities in America are greater than what is available in the country they immigrated from. For many children‚ this is very challenging in
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Composition & Literature | Amy Tan | Professor Blum | JAEL VARGAS 12/17/2012 | This story’s main events take place in Chinatown throughout the 1950s and perhaps early 1960s. The main character of the story‚ who is also the protagonist‚ is the author herself: Amy Tan. The antagonist happens to be her own mother‚ who is always pushing Amy to discover some hidden talent and be someone she is not. There are a few other minor characters in the story. There is Lindo Jong (who she calls
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Not My Dream In the story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan‚ we are shown the struggles of a young girl Jing-Mei. Her struggle is that of a young girl growing up and trying to find her own sense of identity. Her troubles are compounded by her mother‚ who convinces her that she can become someone important. Because of her mother’s constant overbearing behavior‚ Jing-Mei does everything she can to annoy and displease her mother even to the point of being a failure. This fight to find
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Two Kinds by Amy Tan A: Synopsis This short story‚ ‘Two Kinds’ is more focused on the relationships between mother and daughter. The narrator of this story‚ Jing Mei recalls of the days when her mother wanted her to be a prodigy in America. Her mother moved to San Francisco when she lost everything in China. At first‚ she thought that her daughter would be like Shirley Temple as they watched how talented Shirley Temple was in acting. And one day when the narrator’s mother saw a young Chinese girl
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The author‚ Amy Tan is a second generation Chinese immigrant. Her parents are both Chinese immigrants. Her father and one of her brothers passed away during her early teens. At that period‚ she found out that her mother had been married before in China. She left her divorced ex-husband and three daughters in China. In 1987‚ after her mother recovered from a serious illness‚ they took a trip to China where Tan reunited with her half-sisters. The trip offered Tan a new perspective on her mother and
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Not My Dream In the story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan‚ we are shown the struggles of a young girl Jing-Mei. Her struggle is that of a young girl growing up and trying to find her own sense of identity. Her troubles are compounded by her mother‚ who convinces her that she can become someone important. Because of her mother’s constant overbearing behavior‚ Jing-Mei does everything she can to annoy and displease her mother even to the point of being a failure. This fight to find her own identity against
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"Two Kinds" The story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan represents the theme that parents cannot control their children‚ but can only guide them. A Chinese mother and daughter Ni Kan are at odds with each other in story. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy of some sort‚ her daughter does try to follow her mother ’s orders but has she gets older she realizes she wants to find her own self and not to be what her mother wants her to be. They both have conflicting values‚ which is the theme of the
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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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