The Importance of Family Relationships in "The Young Couple" and "Two Kinds"

In 'The Young Couple', Jhabvala illustrates the difficulties Cathy

experiences in family relationships upon moving to India after her

marriage to Naraian, whereas in 'Two Kinds', Amy Tan describes the

difficulties Jing-mei, the heroine, faces in her relationship with her

mother. Part of these difficulties are caused by the 'clash of

cultures' that the heroines in both stories experience. Cathy feels

that she does not fit in to Indian culture and Jing-mei has to live

with a mother who, at crucial times, shows that she lives her life

according to Chinese principles, whereas Jing-mei prefers the

independent, American lifestyle.

From the beginning of 'The Young Couple', Jhabvala makes clear how

life is run in India. She describes how the couple's flat was obtained

for them through an "uncle's influence" and that Naraian's friends'

jobs were found through the "influence of some relative". We see how

these people's wellbeing depends on their families, as Naraian and his

unemployed friends live at "the expense of their families" and as

Naraian's family is "supporting them completely".

Many of the difficulties Cathy faces are due to the fact that she has

married into an Indian family. We see how many of her 'problems' are

actually an important part of normal Indian life. She feels

"oppressed" and by the attention that she receives from the family but

then we learn that this is only because Naraian's father is "proud…of

all his possessions among whom he liked to number Naraian and blonde

English Cathy", suggesting that she should not feel oppressed as it is

normal for her to receive all the attention, as, it seems to suggest,

she ...

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...r so many times", and the thing that

frightens her most is to ask her mother why she had given up hope.

Again, it is at her mother's unhappiness and loss of faith that

affects Jing-mei the most, showing how her mother's feelings are so

important to her.

The way the two stories differ in their portrayal of the importance of

family relationships, is that in 'The Young Couple', the influence of

the family has a negative effect on the couple, and this does not get

resolved, as Cathy still pictures the room being got ready for them at

the end, whereas in 'Two Kinds', even though Jing-mei's mother's

insistence and pressure makes Jing-Mei humiliate herself and her

mother, the reader still gets the impression that the fighting and

pressure does not have a lasting effect on her, as she is eventually

"perfectly contented".