...Amy Tan: Two Kinds ”Two Kinds” is a short story written by Amy Tan in 1989. The story brings up the themes parenting and relationship between a mother and her daughter. Also about the difficulties for a Chinese mother to raise an Americanised daughter. The main character is a Chinese-American girl called Jing-mei. The mother has great ambitions for her daughter and believes "that you could be anything you want to be in America". The daughter likes the American lifestyle while her mother wants to keep the Chinese way of lifestyle and living. Summary The story takes place in America. Jing-mei's mother has arranged piano lessons for Jing-mei, because she wants her to become a prodigy. However Jing-mei feels like she is trying to make her into someone she is not. Jing-mei lies about practice times and she does only what she has to do during the lessons. At a talent show she plays the piano awful because of her lack of participation in the piano lessons. Still her mother insists on continuing the piano lessons. Jing-mei screams but her mother drags her to the bench to play. On Jing-mei's thirtieth birthday her mother gives her the piano as a present Characters - Jing-mei Jing-mei and her mother are struggling to accept and understand each other. Jing-mei wants be her self and is obsessed with the American idea of being anyone you want. She does not want to follow her mothers’ footstep, but in stead make her own. She won’t change just to make her mother feel proud or...
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...What exactly is the American dream? For many individuals the so-called American dream might vary. In “two kind” by Amy Tan the mother whom is a Chinese immigrant wishes that her first generation American daughter accomplish everything she couldn’t and even wishes that her daughter becomes a prodigy. This hope to acquire the American dream bring tension in the mother and daughter relationship and she in between these two kind of dreams her mothers dream for her and her own dreams. Also, this writing emphasizes the relationship of an immigrant mother and her Chinese American daughter and the tension cause of the American culture that clashes with mother Chinese culture and leads into miscommunication. Also, what might seem like the mother want...
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...as complicated as immigration and these relationships can even get more difficult and complex. In “Two Kind” Amy Tan manages to convey all the different phases of a mother and daughter relationship during a single story about a single major event in the life of these two powerful individuals. So the first image I choose for my collage was a picture of the great wall in china. I thought that the imagine as whole needed to represent china, because the mother was born in raised and china something absolutely essential in understanding who is the mother as a person. The mother is describe as having an idealized version of what is like to live in America “America was where all my mother hopes lay. She had come to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in china her mother and father, her home, her first husband and two twins baby girls. But she never looked back with regret”(Tan “Two Kinds”72). You can tell china is very important part of who the mother is a person she takes pride in her culture, but china is also represent a great deal of suffering and loss. That where the second imagine comes from I wanted...
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...Brittany Peters Professor Smith English 102-A2C 27 March 2013 "Two Kinds" Summary In the short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the conflicts of mother and daughter relationships are considered a theme. The cultural differences between a mother and her daughter, Jing-mei, really take a toll on their personal relationship. The struggle that a mother has in wanting her child to have a better life and all have all the opportunities that she didn’t have growing up drives her mother to the point of almost unrealistic expectations for her daughter to be good at something and become known as a ‘prodigy.’ Throughout this story, Jing-mei learns a little about herself and in the end, later in life, begins to understand her mother and her expectations for her as well. Jing-mei’s mother believed America held all the possibilities in the world along with the ability to become anything you wanted to be; if you were dedicated to something Her mother has high hopes for her daughter becoming a prodigy. She does not know what her talent is, but explores and considers all sorts of possibilities that stem from her reading magazine articles on amazing kids in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” and other popular magazines. Jing-mei was forced to take piano lessons from Mr.Chong, a retired piano teacher who was deaf. He could not hear her off-key notes that she would play in her attempts to not try to learn how to play. Mr. Chong’s eyes were too slow to keep up with her hitting the wrong notes,...
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...Amy Tan's Two Kinds uncovers clashing qualities. The mother-little girl relationship goes through the entire story. Clashes happen attributable to disparate conclusions about distinguishing proof. As a Chinese settler in America, Ni Kan's mom puts her American dream on the shoulder of her little girl. Be that as it may, as an American conceived youngster, Ni Kan would not like to experience the desires of her mom. This paper will look at what the title "two sorts" infers from every other points of outlook. "Just two sorts of petite girls the individuals who are faithful and the individuals who take after their own particular personality! One and only sort of little girl can live in this house. Subservient little girl! "The queue clarifies...
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...In the story “two kinds” written by Amy Tan it shows how her mother would want her to do something as a prodigy. The mother would want to change her daughter and make her look as someone else follow her culture when the daughter wouldn't want to do something. Forced her to do things that she didn't like and she though that she wasn't good enough. Everyone has gone through like she did with her mother. I know I have gone through that when my parents would want me to do things there culture do. I wouldn't want to do it because I know that, that's not how I am or who I am. My parents would want me to do this or that and I wouldn't want to of course I know that I am making my parents very disappointed. There's this one time where my parents wanted me to things that they are used to do so they could tell everyone that me and my sister are good kids and that there lucky to have us. My mother would always want me and my sister to play an instrument since in her family they would always play an...
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...It is known that a mother would do anything within her power to protect her child. It is exceptionally difficult when the mother is what the child needs protection from.In the exerpt “The Violin” by Amy Chua and “Jing-Mei Woo: Two Kinds” by Amy Tan both portray mother-daughter relationships “the chinese way”. In “The Violin”, by Amy Chua, also from the point of view of Amy Chua, she is stressing to perfect her daughter’s every move.”I’m not thinking anything,”’ I said indignantly. Actually, I’d been thinking that Lulu’s right elbow was too high, that her dynamics were all wrong, and that she needed to shape her phases better (Chua 47-48).” Amy Chua was presented on the fact that she could not perfect Lulu and Lulu would have to figure it out...
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...A Glimpse of Amy Tan As one of the first Asian American cultural writers of her time, Amy Tan is also one of the most significant contemporary writers of Literature today. Amy Tan brings to life the struggles of dual cultural identity, generational clashes due to age and cultural gaps minority woman face in society. Many of her stories are based upon real obstacles her, her Mother and Grandmother had in their lives as young woman, facing not only the minority issues but the sexiest stigma’s of their times. Born in Oakland, California in 1952, Amy Tan was born to immigrants that had left lives and family behind in China. As a teenager, Amy was faced with the tragic death of her Father and a few months later her Brother. Shortly after their deaths Daisy, Amy’s mother, decided “to cleanse the evil influence of their "diseased house". (Mote) And moved her family to New York, Washington, Florida and finally to Europe. At first they lived in the Netherlands and eventually settling in Monteux, Switzerland where Tan completed high school. Being considered an outsider by her peers, and the continuous feeling of anger and loss she felt from losing her brother and father, she began hanging out with a crowd of drug-dealing hippies and at sixteen was arrested. Her relationship with her Mother became increasingly strained and after a close encounter of almost eloping with a mental patient, Amy and her family returned to United States where her mother enrolled her in a small Baptist...
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...Chinese American works of literature have evolved and will continue to do so. While some may disagree, the truth is that Chinese American Literature honors chinese culture. In the 2 texts, “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan and “Two Kinds” also by Amy Tan i\the evidence in these passages clearly show that Chinese American Literature honors chinese culture. First, when you really think about it, Chinese culture has a lot to do with honor. Perhaps this is why these text honor Chinese culture. For example one Chinese tradition is being strong. In, “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan” the text shows that it’s honoring chinese cullture by stating. in paragraph 1, “I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength. it was a strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither of us knew it at the time, chess games.” This example honors the Chinese traditional drinks because it establishes right away that having “ Invisible strength” is an important and beneficial characteristic to have for “winning arguments” and “chess games.” The text, “Two Kinds,” also honors...
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...An Essay about ‘Two Kinds’ by Amy Tan The short story ‘Two Kinds’ was written by Amy Tan and published. It’s about a woman from China who immigrated to America with great success, and therefore has big expectation of her daughter. Tan herself is also the daughter of a couple who emigrated from China which explains why she writes about this topic. The narrator is first-person which gives the impression that Tan is telling her story. The story is set in Chinatown, America during the late 1950’s. Amy Tan doesn’t tell us a lot about the setting other than the narrator lives with her mother and father in an apartment. They don’t have a lot of money. The mother works as a cleaning lady, and earns her money from cleaning people’s houses. It also shows how little money the family has that the mother has to clean a blind retired piano teacher’s apartment in order for her daughter to get piano lessons. Even though they don’t have a lot of money they seem to be quite happy with their situation. This may be because the mom came from China where she lost everything because of the war, so the little they have is still a lot more then what she would have in China. Most of the story takes place on the floor of the apartment they live in, either in their own or else in the apartment of the protagonist’s piano teacher Mr Chung. The narrator is a girl. She has short hair, because her mom thought it would help her get to be a famous child actress. She’s properly in her teenage years, because...
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...“The Kaffir Boy” by Mark Mathabane, “Two Kinds” by Nicholas Gage, and “The Teacher Who Changed My Life” by Amy Tan all have examples for overcoming expectations. The characters in all these stories make their ways in life by changing the expectations of the world around them, but it is not always in a positive way. “The Kaffir Boy” represents overcoming many expectations, which allows Mark to get somewhere in life. “Your father didn’t go to school” (Mark Mathabane 7). By not attending school, it is hard for even the brightest people to do anything with their life. By going to school, Mark could shatter people’s expectations, proving he would not follow in his father’s path of a life on the streets. “...he doesn’t have money to waste paying for you to get what he calls a useless education” (Mark Mathabane 6). Mark is pressured by his father to not attend school, which is his expectation of his son. Mark breaks that expectation and goes to school. By going to school, the people around Mark expect new things, and they are positive things that will change his life. Nicholas Gage in “The...
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...Edgar Hernandez Professor Ali ENC 1102 March 20, 2014 Amy Tan's, “Mother Tongue” and Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” both share similar traits in their writings of these two short stories. “Mother Tongue” revolves around the experiences Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story narrated by “Mama” the mother of two daughters Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother and daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships. Although both short stories share this one similar characteristic it is clear that both writers have opposite point of views of their described mother daughter relationships. To begin comparing, both Tan and Walker use the characters of mother and daughter to evoke the importance the relationship plays in the telling of the story. There are similarities that both these characters share. One of these similarities are shown through the use of words that describe a similar feeling of shame or embarrassment both Dee and Tan have towards there mothers at some point in the stories. In one part of the story Tan describes feeling “ashamed” of her mother's broken English (Tan 345). Walker also shows the character Dee having some sense of shame of her mother and sister Maggie by...
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...“Two Kinds”, By Amy Tan In “Two Kinds” (Tan, 206) Suyuan; mother, and June Mei; daughter are mother and daughter who struggle to find a common ground on many things. Suyuan is a Chinese immigrant from China. Suyuan arrived in America after losing everything. This includes, “mother, father, family home, first husband, and two twin daughters”. (Tan, 206) Even after all that was lost, she knew her decision to go to America was the right one. She now has a new life, a new husband, and a new daughter; June Mei. Suyuan has high expectations of her daughter. She had such a fascination with young white girls in film that she would try and force that image onto her daughter. Unfortunately, the results left her daughter looking like a “Negro Chinese” (Tan, 206) With all of the emulating forced on her daughter; the strive to be exceptional, June Mei didn’t want to be that. She just wanted to be normal. When her mother put her in piano classes, June did her best to not be good at it. June Mei didn’t want to be genius. She felt that her mother didn’t like her the way she was. Suyuan became so angry that she slapped June Mei. She accused her daughter of being ungrateful. I don’t think June Mei understood all that was sacrificed by her mother so that she could live a live with plenty of opportunity. “Two Kinds” for Suyuan meant, “Two kinds of daughters’, she said, “Those who are obedient, and those who follow their own mind”. (Tan, 211) Suyuan only wanted one kind of...
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...have a winner. In the stories "Amigo Brothers", "Two Kinds", and one of my own stories , have conflict that can make you pick either side of the argument. So, does every conflict have a winner? The short story "The Amigo Brothers" is an ambitious story which has different types of conflict. "The Amigo Brothers" is a story about two friends that have a fight arranged against each other. Having the fight together forces the friends to forget everything...
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...time ever, and she is nervous. Who wouldn’t be nervous seeing to daughters that you’ve never seen before in your life, and telling them that their mother is dead? Even though the plot seems really dark and it builds a lot of negative suspense, because of Jing Mei’s nervousness, this scene in the story is rather happy and forgiving in many ways. It offers many kinds of bright words and lines like “as my sisters look at me proudly,” “the three of us embracing,” and “bright colors of the three images.” At first I thought the sisters would have been crestfallen to hear of their mother’s fate, and ultimately blame the bad news on Jing Mei. Instead, they treat Jing Mei as if they’ve known her their entire life. The tone in this passage is extremely happy and reading it itself can easily bring tears to one’s face. Amy Tan structures this passage brilliantly, with the carefully chosen words and just how she makes everything bright...
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