Two Kinds By Amy
Culture is considered a part of life which will never leave a person no matter where they eventually end up. In the stories: “Two kinds” by Amy Tan, “Fiesta 1980” by Junot Diaz, and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyan Li it shows the family's internal struggles as they build a new life in America. The stories show how many immigrant families hold onto the customs of their old way of life and expect their kids to grow up as they had in their old culture. As many immigrants leave their cultures and nations to come to America, it is apparent of the expectations they still hold onto in a new and extremely diverse and opportunistic society. Many parents hold their children to the highest expectations of their old culture while there children
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Coming from a Chinese culture the mother looked at American society as a chance for her daughter to be able to become someone of importance. The mother believed just like the people on television that her daughter could “be a prodigy, too” (Tan 1). However, as the daughter showed uninterest and little drive for becoming the star her mother wanted her to be it started to create a separation between the mother and daughter. The daughter realized she wasn't anything special like the ones on television and was her own unique self. Her mother on the other hand could never accept the fact of her daughter not being the best. As her mother believed “you could be anything you wanted to be in America,” it shows the high parental expectations placed on immigrant children while in American society (Tan 1 ). These expectations are derived from the influence of Chinese culture and the promise of a richer American way of life. However, as the parents holds these hopes for their children, they are pushed away because of the individualistic and promise of a different way of life the immigrant children see in the American way of life. This causes an ever widening gap over the way life should be lived between the views of immigrant parents and their first-generation American
Coming from a Chinese culture the mother looked at American society as a chance for her daughter to be able to become someone of importance. The mother believed just like the people on television that her daughter could “be a prodigy, too” (Tan 1). However, as the daughter showed uninterest and little drive for becoming the star her mother wanted her to be it started to create a separation between the mother and daughter. The daughter realized she wasn't anything special like the ones on television and was her own unique self. Her mother on the other hand could never accept the fact of her daughter not being the best. As her mother believed “you could be anything you wanted to be in America,” it shows the high parental expectations placed on immigrant children while in American society (Tan 1 ). These expectations are derived from the influence of Chinese culture and the promise of a richer American way of life. However, as the parents holds these hopes for their children, they are pushed away because of the individualistic and promise of a different way of life the immigrant children see in the American way of life. This causes an ever widening gap over the way life should be lived between the views of immigrant parents and their first-generation American