Two Kinds
The central struggle in Amy Tan 's story "Two Kinds" is a battle of wills between the narrator, a young Chinese American girl, and her mother, a Chinese immigrant. "Two Kinds" is a coming-of-age story, in which the narrator, Jing-mei, struggles to forge her own sense of identity in the face of her strong-willed mother 's dream that she become a "prodigy." Jing-mei is caught between her Chinese mother 's traditional ideas about how to raise a daughter, and her own development as a Chinese American girl straddling two cultures.
Like many immigrants to the United States, Jing-mei 's mother has created idealized visions of her adopted country as a land of opportunity where all dreams may be realized. The first line of the story introduces this central idea: "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America." This vision of America as a place where the streets are paved with gold is further described in the opening paragraph:
You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
The tone of this opening paragraph introduces an element of irony in the narrator 's attitude toward her mother 's vision of America as a place where "you could become anything you wanted to be." Everything sounds too simple and too easily achieved. Yet the narrator does not paint a picture of her mother as ignorant or silly. The story indicates that America is a symbol of hope and optimism in the life of a woman who has suffered numerous tragedies in the form of great personal and financial loss, and yet refuses to give up her dreams:
America was where all my mother 's hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
Her mother
Like many immigrants to the United States, Jing-mei 's mother has created idealized visions of her adopted country as a land of opportunity where all dreams may be realized. The first line of the story introduces this central idea: "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America." This vision of America as a place where the streets are paved with gold is further described in the opening paragraph:
You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
The tone of this opening paragraph introduces an element of irony in the narrator 's attitude toward her mother 's vision of America as a place where "you could become anything you wanted to be." Everything sounds too simple and too easily achieved. Yet the narrator does not paint a picture of her mother as ignorant or silly. The story indicates that America is a symbol of hope and optimism in the life of a woman who has suffered numerous tragedies in the form of great personal and financial loss, and yet refuses to give up her dreams:
America was where all my mother 's hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
Her mother