Two Kinds to Make A Whole

716 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Relationship between a mother and a daughter

When critics discuss these themes in Amy Tans story Two Kinds they most often analyze the mother-daughter relationship immigrant Chinese mother and the American-born daughter living in San Francisco. Where the beliefs of the mother clash with those beliefs of the daughter many critics who analyze the story suggest that the mother-daughter relationships illustrate themes of family misunderstandings, being alone, and personal confusion. However, critics oversee the relationships Chinese mother and their China born daughter, and how this relationship influence the family tensions and the text portrays in China provide a critical framework from which to analyze assimilation acculturation and hybridity into American culture.
Jing-mei she is the main focus of this story describes her childhood, which is full of struggles due to her mother Suyuan wanting her to be the next big prodigy. Suyuan believes ”you could instantly become rich. You could become instantly famous”1 believes if you work hard you will make greatness. Suyuan believes if her daughter tries hard enough, she will be a prodigy. Suyuan thinks her daughter will be like Shirley temple, becoming famous through heard work and dedication. She tests her daughter’s skill at a wide range of talents, to see if she had prodigy qualities. This is all in an attempt to assimilate her daughter into American culture so that she will make something of herself like her neighbor Waverly Jong who was like a sister to Jing they squabbled with each other over dolls and crayons, and they hated each other. When Waverly won a chess competition, Suyuan believed if Waverly had talent her daughter has talent Waverly’s mother, Lindo brags making Suyuan envious of her talented daughter, this made Suy...

... middle of paper ...

...ame piece. This is a symbol of yin and yang, good and evil to have the good must have the bad. This symbolized that her mother was just trying to help her but Jing would not listen she didn’t care because it was just her mother being over baring, which her mother was being slightly over baring but only to ensure the success of her daughter. But it blew up in her face so she let her daughter do it her self but her daughter was too stubborn to even bother to listen that hard work would help her in life. Her mother may have been oppressive but it was only for her best interest. But it is too late for her to change for her mother now she has already disappointed her

Work cited
Amy Tan, Reading to Write Elizabeth Howells, 2011, pages 274-281
1 Amy Tan, Reading to Write Elizabeth Howells, 2011, pages 274
2 Amy Tan, Reading to Write Elizabeth Howells, 2011, pages 279

Show More
Related

  • The Relationship of Mothers and their Expectations of Daughters in Amy Tan’s "Two Kinds"

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei was eagerly hoping to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei. The daily test began to aggravated Jing-mei because they made her feel less sma...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Chinese Mothers In America

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the four women entered America, which is far from their motherland China, they experience a change of culture, the American culture, which was dominant than the Chinese. The Chinese mothers are faced with a difficult task of how to raise their American-born daughters with an understanding of their heritage. The daughters clearly show a gap in culture between the Chinese culture and American culture. The mothers wanted their daughter to follow the Chinese traditions, but the daughters followed the American traditions and even some of them got married to American men. The mothers tried to tell their daughters the story about the Chinese ancestors but the daughter could not follow them and the daughters thought their mothers were backwards and did not know what they are saying. As much as the mothers tried to show love to their daughters, the daughters usually responded negatively. They often saw their mothers’ attempts to guidance as a failure to understand the American culture. Being Chinese and living in America, both the mothers and the daughters struggle with many issues like identity, language, translation, and others. The mothers try to reconcile their Chinese pasts with their American presents; the daughters try to find a balance between independence and loyalty to their heritage

    Read More

  • Empowering Voices: Storytelling in Tan's Characters

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, the younger generations obtain some sense of sympathy toward their ancestors and dreams that were to be fulfilled in The United States. American-born children, ostensibly, are liberated from their parents‟ past. Still, they are obsessed dramatically about their ancestral land. They are haunted by past, and the mystery associated with it; a mysterious past that existed only in the memories of their parents. Intelligently, Tan has used this strategy to narrate her stories. All of Tan‟s novels have parallel narratives, one related to the past which is retold by mothers, and in one case a step sister who has come back from China; and the other is associated with the present stories of daughters about the cultural conflicts and alienation, they feel regarding the ancestral heritage of their home which has been transmitted to them by means of past memories. The point is that storytelling plays an essential position in creation of a new, more Chinese identity, in contrast to the previous American one, McDaniels (2004) states that, Basically, both versions of the stories, mother‟s and daughter‟s are necessary for revealing the complete story, including the painful secrets, whether the pain is alleviated or just changes its context. Both mothers and daughters need to tell their versions and listen to the others‟ versions in order to have all the information necessary to arrange their

    Read More

  • Explain Why Jing-Mei Is More American Than China

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did you know that in Ancient China, a parent could legally kill their children if they were disobedient? It's not legal now, but Chinese parents still expect their children to be obedient. In Chinese culture, family values and expectations are very important. So when Jing-mei is disobedient, it shows that she has been affected by American culture. This shows that Jing-mei is more American than Chinese because she has the American thought that she has the right to be herself and no one can change that, she shows independence, and argues with her mother. That fact conflicts with her mother because she want Jing-mei to be the perfect Chinese prodigy.

    Read More

  • Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Opportunities in America

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” is a story based on the account of a young Chinese girl living in the United States with her overly pushy mother. Two kinds is about opportunity, perseverance, and accomplishment. These are the things Jing-mei learns as she grows up in what many people call “The Land of Opportunity”.

    Read More

  • Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    When her mother dies, Jing-Mei really shows how much of a dynamic character she is. She realizes that, just like the songs in the piano book, her mother and she "were they were two halves of the same song" (Tan 357).

    Read More

  • Americanization in The Joy Luck Club

    1951 Words  | 4 Pages

    Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.

    Read More

  • Chinese and American Cultures

    4366 Words  | 9 Pages

    Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.

    Read More

  • In the American Society

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    To truly understand multicultural literature, one must first try to understand the cultural background of the author. In the case of this piece, we are examining the Chinese culture and Jen’s experiences which shaped her writing. Gish Jen is a second-generation American. Her parents immigrated separately in the 1940’s. Her mother came to America to go to graduate school and her father came as part of the war efforts during World War II. With the rise of Communism in China, both were forced to remain here and ended up building a life together and raising their 5 children as Americans. Because they came in the second of three “waves” of Chinese Immigration, their reasons for coming and the process of assimilating into the American way of life was very different than other Chinese immigrants.

    Read More

  • Conflicting Points of View in Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme that comes to mind for me when I read this story is conflicting values. While growing up it was an important value to Jing-mei to be accepted for the daughter that she was. Unlike the value of her mother which was to not only become the best you can be but a prodigy, someone famous. In the way that Jing-mei's mother pushes so hard for her to become something bigger than she was it seems that Jing-mei tried her hardest not to.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Two Kinds by Amy Tan and Everyday Use by Alice Walker

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons; this only further upset her as she felt that she was a constant disappointment. Her mother was mad at her on a regular basis because Jing-Mei stood up for herself and explained to her that she didn’t want to be a child prodigy.

    Read More

  • Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Rules Of The Game By Amy Tan

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some people say that the love between a mother and her daughter is forever; but what about the understanding? In the case of Waverly Jong and her mother in the story “Rules of the Game,” by Amy Tan, there is much miscommunication and misunderstanding. The story is set in mid-1950’s Chinatown and as the story opens, it is Christmas time. “Rules of the Game” is the telling of how a little girl learns to be more independent but falls into conflict with her mother along the way and becomes a type of trophy. Amy Tan uses elements such as character, symbolism, and setting to portray the themes of struggle between two cultures and independence perfectly in “Rules of the Game.”

    Read More

  • Ideal Personality In Confucianism

    1766 Words  | 4 Pages

    After many years, the daughter-in-law manages to achieve wu wei. This is because she has realized that in order to be happy and find peace, she must live a simple life; She has let go of her anxieties and worries, and as a result is now ‘free’.

    Read More

More about Two Kinds to Make A Whole

Open Document