The story represent the relationship between the daughter and mother and the relationship between the traditinal practices of chinese and the modern world. The mother really what her daughter to succeed in her undetermined talent.…
<br>At the talent show, Jing-Mei's practicing habits show, and she truly learns what her mother wants. She was supposed to play "Pleading Child." In getting ready for the show, Jing-Mei would cheat and never really listen to what she was playing. When it came to the recital, Jing-Mei was so confident that she could pull it off that she started hitting wrong notes and realizing it. She had felt her mother's shame. As a result of the talent show massacre, Jing-Mei didn't want to play the piano anymore. Then, when her mother wants her to practice, she decides that she defiantly won't.…
Many Chinese mothers and Americanized daughters have trouble understanding each other and this problem can only be solved through accepting each other's values and their differences. In the chapter,Two Kinds, from the book "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan exposes the values of a Chinese mother, Suyuan and her Americanized daughter, Jing-mei about living in America. After seeing many articles and stories about prodigies, Suyuan innocently believes her daughter can be one too. At first, Jing-mei was ecstatic about the idea but through constant disappointment from her mother, Jing-mei became idiotically determined to disappoint her mother even more. Pursuing this further, Suyuan thought Jing-mei can be a virtuoso pianist…
A quote from the story is, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (Tan 18). This quote shows that all of Jing-mei’s mother’s hopes lay in America. She faced many disappointments after losing her parents, home, husband, and daughters. She has lost a key part of her culture by losing most of her family. This will impact her views on America and Jing-mei. This will also be the cause of her high hopes. Another quote from the story is, “Only two kinds of daughters! Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (Tan 24). This quote shows that Jing-mei’s mother’s cultural identity influences her views on what she believes Jing-mei should be like. She believes that Jing-mei should be a prodigy. She also believes that Jing-mei should be obedient and always listen to what she says. Another quote from the story is, “For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me” (Tan 24). This quote could qualify the argument because Jing-mei’s views are different from what her mother taught her and believes. However, Jing-mei’s experience causes her to form her own cultural identity that is different from her mother’s. Jing-mei’s cultural identity causes her to believe that she cannot be a prodigy and that she can only be…
Fortunate to be born into a family that supported education, Wu Zhou, in her travels with her father, gained a loving parent-child bond that drove her to exceed boundaries and achieve great things. Since her father did not have the chance to become a man of status, she wanted to make him proud and prove society’s standards wrong by outcompeting her opponents—males. Being well versed in education, politics, and discovering her own beauty, she gained position of Talent Wu, or fifth- ranked concubine to Emperor Taizong.…
In the story Jing-nei is a nine-year-old girl that was born in America, she is a narrator in the story, she also is a dynamic character that tells of her like as a child growing up. She is a reflective character in the story. Jing-ne’s mother wanted her to be a prodigy. The first prodigy…
Only one kind of daughter can live in this hous. Obedient daughter” she shouted in chinese. “Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter, I wish you weren’t my mother” (Chunk 6 paragraph 11, 12). As a Chinese immigrant Jing Mei’s mother gets the idea from television shows and magazines and she does not question the validity of these sources. She meanswhile pushes her daughter to be the best but on the other hand Jing Mei cannot see the value of showing dedication to her mother’s goal, practicing a skill, or collaborating with her mother’s plan because they are both separated by a factor; Culture. After her mother’s death she gains insight into her mother’s underlying motives. In addition Rudy Puana learned to be true in spite of his difficulties in life.…
A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother's death, her mother's sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949. June has used her mother's regret as a weapon in a battle of wills focusing on what her mother wants her to be and what she wants. June wins, leaving her mother, Suyuan, stunned when she says she wishes she were dead like the twins. Although this scene characterizes the common struggle for power between mother and daughter, the story also illustrates…
In The article “why Chinese Mother Are Superior,” By Amy Chua, she emphasized that children raised by Chinese are more victorious than children that are raised by Western Mothers. Chua declared that the strict and direct nature of the Chinese parent style allows their children to have excellence in everything that they do. Which explains why Jing-mei from the story “Two Kinds” was as at time bossy, pushy, harsh toward her daughter to be successful part of the cause was being a Chinese mother as well that is in their nature to push their children to be…
In the short story “Two Kinds”, written by Amy Tan, the character Jing-Mei appears to be rebelling. But, what is she rebelling against? I feel she is rebelling against her mother’s competitive relationship with her Auntie Lindo and her daughter, Waverly. She is struggling to establish her identity by purposely not measuring up to her mother’s standards. This in turn, allows her to enforce her boundaries. Jing-Mei’s mother wanted the best for her; she had very high hopes for her. Jing-Mei’s mother wanted the “perfect child”. She may have wanted this “prodigy child,” due to sibling rivalry. As the story begins, the stench of ongoing competition is made apparent when Jing-Mei’s mother snorts, “What…
But although Jing-mei doesn’t care about her Chinese culture. “Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!”…
Listening to the beautifully played music, and seeing the similarities between the little girl and her child, Jing-Mei’s mother immediately signs her daughter up for piano lessons. “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano…” Appalled, but unable to sway her mother, Jing-Mei reluctantly begins going to piano lessons. She follows the sheet music almost perfectly, but not precisely - she plays the music how she wants it to sound; her hands are positioned how she finds most comfortable. She plays sloppily, and lazily, hoping to spite her mother. Jing-Mei didn’t want to be like those other children, she wanted her mother to accept how she…
The story Two Kinds is about a Chinese girl, Jing-Mei, who lives life trying to find herself under her over-bearing mother’s envisions and high expectations of what she feels Jing-Mei should become. The subject of the mother-daughter dynamic and lack of obedience is revealed from the beginning of the story; as well as the fact their relationship is rather conflicted. Throughout the story Jing-Mei is very obstructive to the ideas her mom puts forth. Her constant acts of disobeying and rebelling against her mom orders, express how the tension arose between Jing-Mei and her mom. The fact her mom had an extremely difficult life in China until she lost everything and moved to America, explains and sort of justifies why she was so obsessed with Jing-Mei excelling and making something of her, life in addition to her desire of wanting to be able to brag. Unfortunately, rather than allowing Jing-Mei to find something she was comfortable with and make an independent decision of what she wanted in her life, she forced activities and ideas on her which eventually resulted in Jing-Mei becoming rebellious. As Jing-Mei became rebellious, her mom implemented her…
The illusion of freedom comes with growth, imagination, and passion. Jing-Mei is a developing girl…
Suyuan had to make the hard decision to leave her twin babies on the side of the road in hopes some kind stranger would take them in, that way she would not have to see them die. Suyuan searches for her babies all through her life in America, sending multitudes of letters; they finally get in touch with her two months after she has died. Because her mother is not alive to meet her children, Jing Mei takes her place and the trip enables her to finally recognize her Chinese ancestry. The minute she enters China she "feels different" and can realize that she is "becoming Chinese" (306). At fifteen Jing Mei believed she was only as Chinese as her "Caucasian friends" (306). Yet her mother counters thoughts, telling her: "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese" (306). Once in China Jing Mei decides her mother was right and she "has never really known what it meant to be Chinese" (307). She has never understood her mother or her heritage. This trip is the connecting link to understanding her life. She begins to feel natural in China, thinking to herself on the train: "I am in China It feels right" (312). Jing Mei sees the landscape, the people, the histories, and the families in China and sees where her mother was speaking from all of those years. She knows a "little percent" of her mother know (15). It becomes "obvious" to Jing Mei to see what "part of [her] is Chinese"; it is "in her family, in her blood"…