Two Kinds
Carmen Morales
English 201-101
Feb 29, 2012
Prof. Wright
Assignment: “Two Kinds” Piano “Two Kinds” By Amy Tan is about Jing Mei mother who is clear in her daughter’s goals. She want Jing Mei to be a prodigy and famous. Her mother send her to the hair solon to make her look like Shirley Temple. She also forces Jing Mei to take piano lesson and soon has a recital, Jing Mei was confident to play. Her mother invites their auntie Lindo because she stretches out the truth that Jing Mei is talented with music, but the recital was a disappointment to her mother and herself. After Jing Mei hurts her mother she gives up on Jing Mei being a prodigy. Years later when her mother her back the piano for her birthday, she sat down to play the songs she played as a child. "Pleading Child", and "Perfectly Contented." Jing Mei notices for the first time, after all of these years, that these two songs are actually two halves to the same song. The theme of “Two Kinds” is coming of age. For instance, “And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me- a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won 't. I won 't let her change me, I promised myself. I won 't be what I 'm not” (2). Jing Mei is a Chinese American girl who was locked in a struggle over her identity. As Jing Mei looks at herself in the mirror she realizes that she doesn’t want to turn into something her mother wants her to be. Jing Mei at the age where she doesn’t want to follow her mother’s wishes, she just wants to be herself.
A second example, "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
English 201-101
Feb 29, 2012
Prof. Wright
Assignment: “Two Kinds” Piano “Two Kinds” By Amy Tan is about Jing Mei mother who is clear in her daughter’s goals. She want Jing Mei to be a prodigy and famous. Her mother send her to the hair solon to make her look like Shirley Temple. She also forces Jing Mei to take piano lesson and soon has a recital, Jing Mei was confident to play. Her mother invites their auntie Lindo because she stretches out the truth that Jing Mei is talented with music, but the recital was a disappointment to her mother and herself. After Jing Mei hurts her mother she gives up on Jing Mei being a prodigy. Years later when her mother her back the piano for her birthday, she sat down to play the songs she played as a child. "Pleading Child", and "Perfectly Contented." Jing Mei notices for the first time, after all of these years, that these two songs are actually two halves to the same song. The theme of “Two Kinds” is coming of age. For instance, “And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me- a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won 't. I won 't let her change me, I promised myself. I won 't be what I 'm not” (2). Jing Mei is a Chinese American girl who was locked in a struggle over her identity. As Jing Mei looks at herself in the mirror she realizes that she doesn’t want to turn into something her mother wants her to be. Jing Mei at the age where she doesn’t want to follow her mother’s wishes, she just wants to be herself.
A second example, "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
Cited: Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 1222-1230. http://www.helium.com/items/2187734-literary-analysis-two-kinds-by-amy-tan