Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan - 1567 Words

One of the most complex relationships is that of a mother and daughter. Amy Tan is an author who writes about her life growing up as an Asian-American in Chinatown. Her novel The Joy Luck Club is a series of short stories about Chinese mothers and their assimilated daughters. One of these stories is â€Å"Two Kinds,† which looks into the life of Jing-Mei Woo and her struggle to gain a sense of self. Some key themes in The Joy Luck Club are the generational and intercultural differences among Chinese-American families, the complex mother-daughter relationship, and the journey of self-discovery. The title â€Å"Two Kinds† can take various meanings in relation to the context of the story, and Amy Tan skillfully uses characterization, linguistics, and†¦show more content†¦Amy Tan uses character development in her short story â€Å"Two Kinds† to make the themes of complex mother-daughter relationships and a search for identity apparent. In â€Å"Two Kinds,â €  Jing-Mei Woo is a young girl who faces challenges as she grows up in a bicultural environment. Her mother, Suyuan Woo, a Chinese immigrant, â€Å"believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America†¦ America was where all my (Jing-Mei Woo’s) mother’s hopes lay (Tan 240).† After leaving a difficult life behind in China, her mother came to America with a vision of hope. Overall, what she wants for her daughter is the best and for her to reach her full potential. Jing-Mei’s mother becomes obsessed with the idea of her daughter becoming a child prodigy, and after growing tired of consistently failing her mother, Jing-Mei promises herself she would not let her mother change her. Suyuan Woo has hopes and expectations for her daughter that Jing-Mei feels she cannot meet, so she ultimately shuts down becomes â€Å"determined not to try, not to be anybody different (Tan 244),† demonstrating that even though she may not know who she is, she is not going to let her mother determine it for her. Jing-Mei takes piano lessons as directed by her mother, but she never really listened to what she was playing, she â€Å"daydreamed about being somewhere else, about being someone elseShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan803 Words   |  4 PagesSteve Maraboli once said, â€Å" When you hold a grudge, you want someone else’s sorrow to reflect your level of hurt but the two barely meet.† â€Å"Two Kinds,† by the author Amy Tan, exhibits how the difference in mindsets prompts a mother and daughter, named Jing-mei, to fail to see eye to eye. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader understands how Jing-meis relationship with her mom changed, why her relationship changed, and how the changed relationship affects the whole story. The daughtersRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1190 Words   |  5 PagesA Mother and Her Daughter In Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† (1989), a section of her novel â€Å"The Joy Luck Club†, Tan depicts the mother-daughter relationship between June and her mother, Ms. Woo. Ms. Woo is determined to turn June into a child prodigy, forcing her to try different activities to see if she would be a prodigy in that field. Ms. Woo then forces June to take piano lessons, and to her content June continues to play the piano with lessons from Mr. Chong. When it comes time for June to perform inRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1365 Words   |  6 Pages In her short story, â€Å"Two Kinds,† Amy Tan describes the childhood of a Chinese immigrant’s daughter. Jing-Mei seeks to desperately become her own unique person but her mother has other plans for her because Jing-Mei’s mother realizes the abundant opportunities that are available to her daughter. Like many immigrants, Jing-Mei’s mother did not have the privilege of becoming a trained chi ld genius, pianist, or a movie star. Instead, Jing-Mei’s mother had to endure many hardships in China such as losingRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1163 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan is a story that focuses on a theme of generational tension between mother and daughter. Problems of identity and community in twentieth century America are also highlighted in this text. Jing-mei Woo struggles to find her identity as someone who has ethnic ties to China, but is born and raised in America. Through this struggle, her idea of the type of person that she should become changes drastically. What this text shows us is how significant events can affect our relationshipsRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1401 Words   |  6 Pages The definition of an underachiever as stated by Webster is â€Å"one (such as a student) that fails to attain a predicted level of achievement or does not do as well as expected.† In the short story â⠂¬Å"Two Kinds† written by Amy Tan, Ni’Kan is the queen of underachievers. She determines at a young age to become defiant to her mom. After experiencing disappointment from letting her mom down, Ni’Kan determined that she would not become a child prodigy and intentionally failed throughout her lifeRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan913 Words   |  4 Pages The story, â€Å"Two Kinds†, by Amy Tan employs symbolism, flashback, and conflict to express the love of a mother. This story starts off with the mother, Suyuan Woo, and her daughter, Jing-Mei, trying to find something that the daughter could become talented at, maybe at a prodigious level. Suyuan Woo introduced various activities that she thought could spark her daughter’s interest. However, none of them seem to be quite right for Jing-Mei. One day, Suyuan Woo bought a piano, hoping this might be theRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1185 Words   |  5 PagesAmy Tan’s sh ort story â€Å"Two Kinds† describes a Chinese immigrant family who hope of finding success and an overall betterment of life in America. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, Mrs. Woo, tries as a minority house maid in the 1960s to provide all the opportunities she can for her last daughter. This short story revolves around the interactions between the Jing-mei, who desires a ordinary life, and Mrs. Woo, who seeks only the best from her daughter. The values of these two charactersRead MoreAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1960 Words   |  8 PagesCultures vary from throughout the world and throughout each family. The way parents raise us through love and affection, discipline and experiences form us as human beings. This brings us to our topic regarding the story â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan. In the story â€Å"Two Kinds†, the author Amy Tan shows the relationship between a mother who is a Chinese immigrant and her daughter that is Chinese American and the pressure she faces by her mother. From beginning to end it shows their whole relationship play outRead MoreAnalysis Of The Story Two Kinds By Amy Tan1188 Words   |  5 Pages America is the land of opportunity. It is the land of freedom, and an immigrants chance to become what they desire. Growing up with two immigrant parents that is what we preached on a daily basis. Both of my parents immigrated to America for the chance of a better life, and they made that very clear to me. There was no exceptions for them. Either you became someone or you will become a disappointment. Pressure was put on me on a daily basis, and slacking off was not acceptable. Therefore, the mainRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan713 Words   |  3 Pagesthe case for the mother in â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan. The m other had an American dream expectation for her daughter to be prodigy girl who endowed at a young age exceptional qualities and abilities but her daughter did not share the same American dream as her mother. The post modern pice of literature is set after WWII . During this time it was all about individualism. The short story is a representation of many immigrant parents ans their children. Throughout the story Amy uses the characters, setting