Every day, a girl dreams of becoming who she wants to be, but her mother has other plans in mind. Mothers always believe they know what is best for their children. While this is normally the case, sometimes mothers can lose sight of the initial idea. Instead of mothers wanting their children to be happy and successful, they begin to push aside their children’s happiness. For example, the daughter could dream of being a teacher, but her mother views teaching as a lower class career and pushes her daughter to go into the medical field instead. As mothers strive to watch their daughters blossom into successful young woman, they can become insensitive to their children's happiness and desires. Mothers across the world push their daughters into participating in activities they have no interest in whatsoever. Like in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the narrator’s mother pushes her daughter to become like other child prodigies even though the child was not interested in the events. Although in the beginning, the …show more content…
Although mothers usually have best interest in mind, they usually lose sight of the big picture and begin focusing on obtaining their own feeling of accomplishment. As mothers wish to see their children successful, daughters just wish to be themselves and to feel happy overall. Ellender 5 Works Cited Hemphill, Essex. “Commitments.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schlib and John Clifford. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2015. 304-305. Shouse, Deborah. “How I Got My Daughter to Learn (Without Pushing Her).” Redbook, vol. 186, no. 5, Mar. 1996, p. G-4. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct+true&db +ulh&AN+9602191991&site+ehost-live.Print. Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schlib and John Clifford. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2015. 320-328.
In Stevie Cameron’s essay “Our Daughters, Ourselves,” she proclaims “ We tell our bright, shining girls that they can be anything: firefighters, doctors, policewoman, lawyers, scientists, soldiers, athletes, artists. What we don't tell them, yet, is how hard it will be. Maybe, we say to ourselves, by the time they’re older it will be easier for them than it was for us.” My parents raised my sisters and I very congruous with this view. They would always tell us that we could do or be anything we wanted when we got older. However, contrary to Cameron’s apprehension on the matter, my parents always told us how difficult it would be straight from the beginning. They told us how financially strenuous becoming a doctor would be. They told us how
Our mothers have played very valuable roles in making us who a we are and what we have become of ourselves. They have been the shoulder we can lean on when there was no one else to turn to. They have been the ones we can count on when there was no one else. They have been the ones who love of us for who we are and forgive us when no one else wouldn’t. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the character Jing-mei experiences being raised by a mother who has overwhelming expectations for her daughter, causes Jing-mei to struggle with who she wants to be. “Only two kind of daughters,” “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!”(476). When a mother pushes her daughter to hard the daughter rebels, but realizes in the end that their mothers only wanted the best for them and had their best interest at heart.
As you can see, each of the mother-daughter couples has a lot in common. They share the same feelings, similar experiences, and a lot of the same knowledge. As rights activist James Baldwin once said, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” Even if some of the daughters fight their mothers to get along together, it ends up it is for the best. Strong mother-daughter bonds are shown through out the novel and many lessons are learned by the daughters. Each daughter makes her mother proud and in the end that is all that is important. The mothers are just happy that they raised their daughters right.
In the past, adults and children had a very different schedule. Children were allowed to discover themselves without a gene donor, or a guardian overriding their decisions. Recently, adults are controlling their children like robots. From the moment they are born their parents have a full schedule for the rest of their life. Activities like joining a soccer team, being in all advanced classes, taking the ACT, and deciding their entire education and schedule of their life makes this generation of children as grumpy and busy as the adults. Anna Quindlen portrayed this idea in her famous essay “Doing Nothing is Something”, where she forces readers to realize that children are not getting enough time to themselves to be children. The way children are being brought through the world will need to change or else they will never learn from themselves and they will not be able to obtain their full potential.
Mama’s dream is to build a happier and healthier family. She also wants to move her family out of their small apartment into a house with a yard where she can tend to a garden. Her dream was deferred when she and her husband moved into the apartment that the Youngers still live in. Her dream provides her with the incentive to make money. But no matter how much she and her husband strived, they never could make enough money to make their dream come true. His death and the insurance money gave Mama the opportunity to realize her
Mothers tend to have strong relationships with their children and force them to be the best that they can be.
The short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan describes a girl, Jing-Mei, who has a mother that expects her to become a prodigy. The story also talks about a girl, Waverly, who makes her mother proud because she is a prodigy. In the short story it states “Of course you can be a prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine” (Tan 1). Jing-Mei was always told by her mother she could be something great. Her mother always expected her to be talented and passionate about something, but Jing-Mei was never passionate because her mother was always telling her what to do. On the other hand Waverly was much different. For example “ Waverly Jong had gained a certain amount of fame as ‘Chinatown’s Littlest Chinese Chess Champion”’ ( Tan 3). This describes
In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, Jing-mei was imposed by her mother to become a prodigy at piano and ballet. Committing to both activities, Jing-Mei realizes that she doesn’t have to fulfill her mother’s wishes and desires, and that she can live her life the way she wants to. Tan demonstrates to the reader that life isn’t all about succeeding and living up to your parent’s expectations, rather it’s about enjoying it. This communicates the idea that in “Two Kinds”, one should live life truest to themselves, with no one pressuring them to become something they don't want to be.
There are different types of people in the world that people may know. Sometimes we may see two different sides of people. One, a person can be a leader, an innovator, or a role model to set an example of how to be independent. Another way we can see is how a person or anyone may control their lives. Sometimes people force others to be something that they are not really meant to be. Amy Tan went through a phase where her mother wanted her to be something than herself, but showed her mom that she does not have to be a certain way to be successful. Amy wrote a short story called “Two Kinds” and explains what happens in her life and how her mom wanted to be a child of prodigy. People can be creative and become successful in their own ways if they
In Amy Tan 's Two Kinds, Jing-mei and her mother show how through generations a relationship of understanding can be lost when traditions, dreams, and pride do not take into account individuality. By applying the concepts of Virginia Woolf, Elaine Showalter, and the three stages of feminism, one can analyze the discourse Tan uses in the story and its connection to basic feminist principles.
Throughout observations and interactions with Mary, I noticed many similarities between her adolescent development and the content that was covered in class. The first concept I observed, that was covered in class, was motivation to learn. Mary is very motivated to do well in her school work. Not only did the ELL teachers mention that she was a hard worker, but it also showed the more I got to know her. Mary would ask questions when she did not know how to pronounce a particular word, or the meaning of a question. She appeared to be interested in the material she was learning and wanted to succeed in her assignments. Before her quizzes, she would re-read the book by herself and study the vocabulary words. She did this on her own and was ex...
A mother’s attitudes are significant predictors of the attitudes of their daughters (Acock and Bengston, 1978; Arditti, Godwin, and Scanzoni, 1991; Dalton 1980; Jennings and Niemi, 1982; Smith, 1983).
Linda, M. & Linda, P. (2011). Theories and approaches to learning in the early years.
Most children seem to have ideas of what they would like to be when they grow up. The average person walking into any kindergarten class today would find future teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, astronauts, firefighters, and ballerinas; the list is endless. I never had the chance to even dream about what I wanted to be when I grew up and was given little chance to develop my own tastes and ideas towards this goal. I spent my childhood trying to be the good example to my younger brother and sister that my father demanded in his letters. All the while I was hoping and praying that my mother and father would get back together. The only thing I knew was being a mom and that is what I thought I wanted to be.
The relationship between a mother and daughter is a deep-rooted and intense bond. While the loving bond is often a source of positivity and support, it can also be a source of frustration and ambivalence (Birditt, 2009). It is very common for an unequal distribution of power often exists in a mother-daughter relationship. A mother demands the respect and obedience of a daughter, while most children wish to gain positive feedback from a parent. Nevertheless, as a child matures they often begin to reject the high power distance that exists between a mother and daughter.