Two Kinds Jing Mei Summary

Throughout the world, every single person has culture. Culture consistently informs how people view the world and others. When meeting new people or experiences something new, their culture influences how they react. Culture dictates people to do certain things in certain situations; certain things that may seem non important or socially acceptable to some people, may insult or confuse others. Even small, seemingly insignificant things like morning routines can and are influenced by a person’s culture. People often go into new environments with things from their own culture to share, as shown in the story Indians fathers plea. In this story a father is asking the teacher for acceptance of his son as someone who is special. His son is a Native American, and growing up he was influenced by their traditions. His teacher labeled him slow and is treated differently by other people. His father explains he is different “My son, wind wolf is not an empty glass coming into your class to be filled he full basket coming into a different with something special to share”.
Culture doesn’t always affect who you are because you can always leave it behind, and embrace a new culture to make it your own.
In the story Two Kinds Jing-mei decides to not listen to her culture (her mom) but to embrace the American way. Her mom didn’t want her daughter to be poor growing up like she was. She was attempting to get her daughter to be something more than herself. Jing-mei wanted to leave her culture and wanted to make her own choices. Jing-mei refused to be changed by her mom. “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself.” In our own experiences we have to make our choice to embrace or leave our
culture. My life I was always a trouble kid living with my mom and two brothers. My parents got divorced when I was at the age of 3. I had no male role model to look up to so my actions were always negative. At the age eleven I moved to live with my dad in Oklahoma. It was a big adjustment for me to not have my mom around me all the time. My dad laid out the ground rules on how things worked around the house. Every time he has a chance to teach me something he does with no hesitation. He is always there for me when I need him to be and I have grateful to have him. Though culture is something you are born into, it does not title who you are or what you believe in. Some see culture as just another word a person came up with to add in the dictionary, others see it as where they came from and who they really are. Culture persistently affects ones view on the world and others. Culture dictates people to do certain things in certain situations; the way you embrace your culture and may be an offensive to someone else. The things you do in everyday live are most likely a routine that’s been happing for years in your cultural environment. Culture is part of everyday you can embrace or turn on your culture, the choice is yours.