Sunday, January 5, 2020

Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan - 1185 Words

Amy Tan’s short 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 characters are in constant conflict of which creates a lasting segregation between parent and child. Through Mrs. Woo’s death, Jing-mei questions her childhood upbringing and her mother’s true intentions that were masked by pure immigrant ambition.†¦show more content†¦The parallel of being successful and famous is symbolized in the character Shirley Temple, a 1960’s white television child that became popular from her acting and cute appea rance (ENG 114). The pianist to Mrs. Woo becomes the perfect representation of her American dream and assurance that it is possible for immigrants to become prosperous. Jing-mei is seen in the story rebelling against her mother by invoking her â€Å"own will, [and] right to fall short of expectations† (240). This characterization is equivalent to American individualism that employs the principle of favoring freedom of action for the individual over the collective, or in this case for Mrs. Woo. These opposing values continuously clash and create distance within the mother and daughter relationship. The immigrant expectations of success for a better life in America coupled with American values of freedom and individuality provokes and sustains the rift in the family’s bond. Jing-mei’s inability to connect with her mother arises from her upbringing. Mrs. Woo pushed Jing-mei to extremes with her parenting and failed to realize the lasting trauma it had on her daught er. Jing-mei as a fragile child wants nothing more than for her â€Å"mother and father [to] adore [her]† (233). The developing girl is looking for acceptance through her parents, but Mrs. Woo does not understand the positive reinforcement required in those early stages of development. InsteadShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1567 Words   |  7 Pages 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-AmericanRead MoreAnalysis 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 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

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