Amy Tans Two Kinds
For a lot of us growing up, our mothers have been an integral part of what made us who we are. They have been the one to forgive us when no one else could. They have been the one to comfort us when the world seemed to turn to evil. They have been the one to shelter us when the rain came pouring down. And most importantly, they have been the one to love us when we needed it the most. In "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, Jing-mei is a young daughter of a Chinese immigrant. Growing up she had to endure being raised by an overbearing mother as well as deal with psychological struggles within herself. She had to learn how to become a woman on her own terms. Throughout the story, her mother repeatedly pressures Jing-mei to be something that she is not. She wants Jing-mei to somehow become a prodigy child. She has such high hopes for her daughter that she doesn't realize the amount of distress she causes Jing-mei. Like all good mothers, she only wants the best for her child. Since immigrating to America, she believes that anything can be accomplished and she uses her daughter as her outlet to prove it. She continuously gives Jing-me
By the end of the story the outlook on these pressures take a different turn. Jing-mei has matured from a girl into a woman and, as a peace offering, her mother offers to give her the piano-the main object of adversity between the two of them. This offers her the realization that she has become herself on her own terms, even with all of this hardship In this story, the piano symbolizes different things for the two of them. For Jing-mei, it symbolized the unwanted stress her mother inflicts upon her, the pressure to become someone she is not. And, for her mother it symbolizes the hope in the child, the hope that she will become a prodigy child, the hope that coming to America gave her. "America was where all my mother's hopes lay.'' This statement only reiterates this free hope America and the piano gave her. The piano piece she had once struggled to play as a child was entitled "Pleading Child" and was very slow and difficult. She saw that on the next page was a song called "Perfectly Contented" which was quick and happy. These were two halves of the same song, which is symbolization to her life. During her childhood she had felt
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jing-mei Jing-mei, Perfectly Contented, Tan Jing-mei, America America, , Pleading Child, jing-mei feels, own terms, true self, child hope, pressures jing-mei, prodigy child, mother's expectations,
Approximate Word count = 771
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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