The effects of culture on an individual can be a critical factor of personality and how one views the surrounding world. The broad aspect of cultural influence can be argued that mindset and personality can only be defined by their surroundings. Cultural identity can also be seen as what your surroundings consist of or an important choice that can only be made by an individual. It’s impact can cause exhibition of personality or divergence from domestic society. Culture and how it develops an individual is a particularly controversial topic when referring to its overall effect. Although society is raised and surrounded by all sorts of influential culture, one ultimately has to make the final decision on the makeup of their personality and how …show more content…
Therefore, just because one’s self is raised educated in a single domestic culture, one does not have have to accept this culture. It is possible for a person to branch out to other cultures by one’s own will. Similarly, in the narrative Two Kinds by Amy Tan, Jing-mei, the ethnically Chinese daughter, rebels against the common Chinese parenting style of her mother while living in the Chinatown of San Francisco, United States: “...And then I decided, I didn’t have to do what mother said anymore. I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China.” (Tan 15). Accordingly, Jing-mei decides not to accept the culture that her mom tries to compel on her, but instead rebels against this. She takes authority over what she accepts as her culture and chooses to reject her parental upbringing. This sudden feeling that Jing-mei has conjured up inside causes her to unearth part of her that she has not yet before seen: “It felt like worms and toads and slimy things were crawling out of my chest, but it also felt good, that this awful side of me had surfaced, at last” (16). Ordinarily, the effects of culture would lead the offspring to agree due to similar upbringing, but this is not the case for Jing-mei. Due to her exposure and adaption to a foreign culture, in this case American, she is able to distinguish the dissimilarities. Jing-mei utilizes both Chinese and American culture to attempt to create her own personality. Perhaps culture is a factor in her character, she chooses to make the decision on the culture that she will choose to accept and which traits she will adopt. Jing-mei is a great example of how culture affects an individual and also how individuality plays a significant role in determining the final outcome of one’s
One of the greatest examples Tan presents in her story, is Suyuan’s unrelenting goal of turning Jing Mei into a prodigy. The Ed Sullivan Show brings Suyuan into making her daughter take piano lessons (601). Another example of this cultural conflict is when Jing Mei wants badly to express to her mom to let her be. Unlike her mother, Jing Mei doesn’t believe she could be anything, she could only be herself (606,607). According to the previously mentioned article, “Intergenerational Cultural Conflicts in Norms of Parental Warmth Among Chinese American immigrants, immigrant parents gravitate towards maintaining the values of their country of origin, even though the dominant culture also calls for socialization to American society. In the the Chinese culture, one is expected to be hardworking and
Jing-mei finds her cultural identity when she becomes and adult. One half of her wants to be that perfect, obedient child that her mother wants. The other half wants to have attention from her mother. She is that “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented” daughter. Although Jing-mei and her mother’s culture clashed, she was able to find who she really
Amy Tan, a child of Chinese immigrants, wrote the story “Two Kinds”, telling the tale of a Jing-Mei’s rebellion against her mother’s desire to change her into a prodigy. As Jing-Mei’s mother continually tells her she does not try hard enough to succeed, the conflict between Jing-Mei and her mother escalates. Jing-Mei grows more stubborn, making every effort to resist her mother, and the relationship devolves into a standoff where mother and daughter both refuse to budge from their position. “Two Kinds” shows the irony in Jing-Mei’s relationship with her mother; while her mother believes Jing-Mei does not try hard enough to succeed, Jing-Mei succeeds in her struggle for identity by refusing to become the person her mother wants.
Similarly, Wong also grew up in America with a traditional Chinese mother. In contrast, Wong’s upbringing involves her mother forcing her into attending two different schools. After her American school day, Wong continues on with Chinese school to learn both cultures. Her mother felt it was her duty to “[. . .] learn the language of [her] heritage” (Wong 144). This puts a burden on Wong as she starts to despise the Chinese culture.
One type of effect the Chinese mothers’ expectations has in their relationship with their “Americanized” daughter is negative since the mothers are unable to achieve anything. An-Mei Hsu expects her daughter to listen and obey as the young ones do in Chinese culture, but instead receives a rebellious and stubborn daughter, “‘You only have to listen to me.’ And I cried, ‘But Old Mr. Chou listens to you too.’ More than thirty years later, my mother was still trying to make me listen’” (186-187). Instead of the circumstances improving, the mother is never able to achieve anything; her forcing and pushing her daughter to the Chinese culture goes to a waste. They are both similar in this sense because both are stubborn; the daughter learns to be stubborn through American culture and wants to keep herself the way she is, whereas the mother wants to remove this teaching from American culture and does not give u...
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 her mother's wishes shows how parents cannot control their child's life; they can only point them in the right direction and let them make their own choices.
In Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds”, Tan writes about a mother who is from China and now she lives in America in the 1950’s with her daughter, Jing-mei. The mother sees America as a country of hope and new beginnings and a wants a better life for the family. The mother has high expectations for the daughter and pushes her relentlessly. The daughter struggles with the mother’s hopes and dreams. Those are the mother’s hopes and dreams and not the daughter’s. As young children we want to make our own path and do things against the grain not realizing that the words of our parents hold wisdom that we are to ignorant to understand.
The struggle with conflict between parents and children is something that almost occur to several teens, especially those who drift into a culture outside of their parents’. In “Two kinds,” by Amy Tan excerpt from The Joy Luck Club,is an example of constant conflict between a strict and overbearing parents, and their child. The main character is a young Chinese- American daughter, who childhood was affected by her overbearing Chinese mother. Throughout the whole story, Jing Mei and her mother had a numerous amount of conflict, which escorted to the central conflict. Jing Mei and her mother is like an apple and oranges, her mother is an imperious and an overbearing Chinese mother. While Jing Mei was an apathetic American upbringing.
MeiMei is a young girl growing up in a Chinese-American household, in The Rules of the Game, by Amy Tan. As MeiMei and her mom are talking, she asks her mom a vague question about what Chinese people do, and her mom replies with an answer that is correlated with the Chinese heritage,“Chinese people do many things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people.” (Tan 2) MeiMei is influenced by this statement because she thinks in order to keep true to her heritage, choosing one of these occupations is a good idea. MeiMei is pressured to fulfill her Chinese heritage which narrows her ability to create her own life, inspired by her own interests. In addition to influencing the activities one strides for, heritage can impact one’s self image if one is not able to live up to the expectations of his/her family. Jing-mei Woo, a young girl being pushed to the limits by her mother, grows up in a Chinese American household, in “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. In Jing-mei Woo’s household, her mom’s main goal is to make her a genius. Due to the Chinese heritage, Jing-mei Woo’s mother stops at nothing to train her into a prodigy. One night, Jing-mei Woo is forced to recite bible verses, but she fails after the first line and reflects on her mental state during the experience,
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
In conclusion, culture can shape one’s identity but also confuse people. The perfect balance of mixed culture can be found with just some guidance of an adult, song, or even a girlfriend. Culture is a very important and individual aspect of everyone’s
“The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese. (179). In the story A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan, the protagonist character, Jing-mei, finds herself in several difficult situations due to how her social and cultural upbringing has shaped her. She finds herself pulled between her Chinese DNA and her American background. While she was raised being told that she was Chinese and “it’s in her blood”, she does not identify as such, because she grew up in America and only sees herself as an American. After her mother’s passing,
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
There are many different types of cultures and ways people would react in different situations. When a person thinks of the word culture they start to think of races, places, and states. Culture is in fact a lot more than that, culture is a society’s set of unique patterns, behaviors and beliefs (M.A., Lucas, Social Psychology Sociological Perspectives 3rd edition). Culture can be identified in various ways for example, the way you feel about certain situations or how would one person react differently from the way they grew up environmentally or religiously. The way a person was raised environmentally, physically, and spiritually all have an effect on other cultures. The way a person would normally act would no longer act that way due to the actions of the past. Different cultures affect other cultures in almost any way possible.
Language allows individuals a way to communicate, influencing an individual’s personality and their children’s development process Triandis & Suh, (2002). Culture can be different geographically; it is all based on the history of people, where they are from, and what their people have lived through over time and history. All these factors can have learned element; one’s culture is learned by experiencing the culture in their society. Culture may have an important role in shaping the minds and personality of young minds and remaining. Consistent over time. Personality modeling depends on culture to propel its information along. Variances in individual’s personality is striking, and a parallel can be drawn with the big five. Each culture exhibits different personality traits among their people, traits are expressed in different ways and these traits can be extremely different from one culture to the next, and even within culture in different translations. Traits can be extremely different from one culture to the next, and even within culture in different