Amy Tan's two kinds is a short story which dipicts the relationship between an immigrant mother, an American daughter and their inability to understand each other. Although most mother/daughter relationships have difficult times, when neither side is willing to bend, sometimes in winning the battle, you lose the war.

The story "two Kinds" is set in Chinatown, in Sacramento, in the late 50's to early 60's. Jing-Mei is a young Chinese girl who's mother has come from China to America to find a better life. Jing Mei's mother wants her to be a child prodigy. Jing-Mei just wants to discover who the real her is. At first, Jing-Mei tires to be what her mother wants her to be. Her mother tests her constantly, but eventually Jing-Mei becomes frustrated from all the failed attempts, and decides she will no longer do what her mother wants. Jing-Mei gives up on herself, believing she can't succeed, which ultimately causes her mother to give up on her. Jing-Mei realizes that what hurt her the most was her mother giving up on her.

In trying to please her mother, Jing-Mei's self image is lowered. Everyday her mother would read about a new child prodigy then could try to test Jing-Mei t

As Jing-Mei begins to tinker with the piano, she notices the piece she played in the talent show still in the bench seat where she had left them so many years ago. As she sits and tries to play, she realizes the title of the song she had played was called "Pleading child" which seemed so appropriate for the time, yet, the song next to it was called "Perfectly contented" (The second half of the first song which she never had the chance to try)

Jing-Mei's mother who cleans houses for a living, wants her daughter to have a better life than she had. Her mother was born and raised in China. After losing everything, including her husband and children,

Another literary technique Amy Tan uses in the short story "two Kinds" is symbols. In this story, the piano represents success, despair, devastation and reconciliation. In the beginning, to Jing-Mei's mother, the piano means success. She sees the piano as her daughters chance to make something of herself which will give her the opportunity for a better life. To Jing-Mei, the piano is like a punishment, she is being forced to do something she does not want to do feeling as if she'd "been sent to Hell" In the climax of the story, the piano takes on a new meaning, devastation. Jing-Mei mother is devastated when Jing-Mei plays terribly at a talent show and embarrasses her in front of her friends. Jing-Mei causes her mother to give up on her devastating their relationship. In the end, the piano represents reconciliation, Jing-Mei's mother gives the piano to Jing-Mei for her 30th birthday, Jing-Mei is pleased as it gives her a sense of pride "as if it were a shiny trophy I had won back"

o see if she could do what the child prodigy could do. At first Jing-Mei wants to find her prodigy, but after many failed attempts, she reveals how she hated the tests, "The raised hopes and failed expectations". Another example of her self image being lowered is when Jing-Mei learned to play the piano, she says, "So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chanace". And again, Jing-Mei proves her low self image when she reveals that she believed that she could not do anything as her mother had said< "for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to".

Jing-Mei's mother decides to have her take piano lessons. She knows an elderly gentelman who had taught piano some time ago. The mother makes a deal with him to give Jing-Mei lessons and to allow her practice time on his piano, in return, she would clean his apartment. Jing-Mei did not like ths arrangement. She says, "I felt as though I had been sent to Hell". Jing-Mei threw a temper tantrum, to no avail. Her mother just thought she wa

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Approximate Word count = 1799
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)