Mother In Elie Wiesel's 'Two Kinds'

Instead of giving up, her mother decides to transform Jing-Mei into a great musician, and Jing-Mei soon finds herself taking piano lessons. Her tutor, however, suffers from deaf ears and she takes advantage of his handicap by pretending to studiously play. Jing-Mei succeeds with her ruse to the point where her mother brags to Jing-Mei’s Auntie Lindo about her piano playing prowess, saying: “It’s like you can’t stop her natural talent.” (Tan 209) Soon

Jing-mei reacts extremely negatively to this pressure. As any child would when they are forced to do things they do not want to. It is only strengthened when she states “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’ be what I am not.” (pg 1220). Jing-mei feels uncomfortable with her mother putting so much pressure on her. She is on a continuous struggle with herself to find who she really is. She is forced to take a stance against her mother and she uses hurtful memories from her mother past by stating ‘”Then I wish I’d never been born!” I shouted “I wish I were dead! Like them.” (pg 1225). This refers to the death of her twin baby daughters that died back in China. Jing-mei feels she must become her true self, a person whom she feels her mother is not determine for her. She is constantly distraught over the torn feelings of wanting to become her true self and making her mother proud. Still as time goes on it proves to be better to go against her parental advice and her mothers wishes as stated “And after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, they raised hopes

"After seeing [her] mother's disappointed face once again, something inside of [her] began to die. [She] hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations" (Tan 350). At this point in the story the protagonist, Jing-Mei, slowly comes to the realization that "[She'll never be the kind of daughter [her mother wants her] to be" (Tan 356). With the thought of not letting her mother change her Jin-Mei began to try to make her mother "Give up hope" (Tan 350). "[She] pretended to be bored" so that she would not have to take the tests. And it worked she was finally able to be herself, there was no "mention of [her] being a prodigy" (Tan 351).

After dedicating her life to rebelling against her mother’s word , she finds she hasn’t focused on a life that serves a purpose for herself.Jing-mei never got it through her head that her mother wasn't looking into forming her into something else.Looking back Jing-mei realizes, “So maybe I never gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age” (Tan 226).There is an instance where the narrator will get to showcase her skills as a pianist, though fails miserably. The scene shows how her malevolence backfires on her and creates the biggest blow for Jing-mei. Coming home from the demeaning concert where she played horridly, the protagonist admits, “I had been waiting for her to start shouting, so I could shout back and cry and blame her for

For example, Suyan Woo believes her daughter; Jing-mei Woo’s life is more valuable than her own. She believes her daughter has high potential and incessantly pushes her to achieve that potential. The author states, “Of course you can be prodigy too,” my mother told me when I was nine. “You can be best anything” (Tan 132). This line illustrates the expectations Suyan holds for her “prodigy” of a daughter. At first, Jing-mei enjoys the idea of being a prodigy and pleasing her parents but this quickly changes. Jing-mei declares, “In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything” (Tan 133). But in the end, the stress and pressure her mother persistently puts on her was too much. Jing-mei drops out of college, disappointing her mother and causing a massive crack in their relationship before Suyan eventually passes

The main character, Jing-Mei is pushed by her mother to become a child prodigy. She is convinced that this is the easiest way to live the “American Dream”. “America was where all my mother’s hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better,”(Tan 3). This shows that Jing-Mei’s mother sacrificed a lot for them to be living in America. Jing-Mei and her mother have a good relationship and love each other very much. After her mother tried and tried again to find something her daughter was good at, it began to drive them apart. ”And the next day I played a game with myself, seeing if my mother would give up on me before eight bellows. After a while I usually counted only one bellow, maybe two at most. At last, she was beginning to give up hope,”(Tan 17). Her mother had pushed her daughter in hopes of making her a prodigy. This was hurtful to their relationship. Jing- Mei felt that her mother did not like her the way she was and wanted to change her into something

As time went by Jing-Mei messes up on a few things and that upsets her mother. To show how Jing-Mei gradually changes Tans wrote “After seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectation.” (265). At this point she is already having thoughts that becoming a prodigy is almost impossible because she can perform to her mother’s expectations.

Evident in this culture, immense amounts of pressure often cause dissatisfaction in one’s self, many times leading one to the misconception of attaining perfection. After losing everything in China, Jing-mei’s mother, inspired by Shirley Temple, gives her daughter peculiar tests as part of “becoming a prodigy.” Being fed up with the tests, displays of her boredom allow Jing-mei’s mother to give up for a while. One day, her mother sees a little Chinese girl playing piano on television, and this hatches the brilliant idea of having “Old Chong,” a deaf, old man, teach Jing-mei piano. Jing-mei was soon entered into the talent show, but she was clearly unprepared, and it turned out to be a complete fiasco, disappointing her mother. Two days later, she got in a verbal fight with her mother, and to upset her, Jing-mei declares, “I wish I were dead. Like them.” She was referring to her twin sisters that her

At the beginning of the story, Tan introduces us to a mother and daughter who cannot get along. In “Two Kinds,” the mother is placing too much pressure on her daughter to be successful. She holds the unrealistic expectation of hoping her daughter will be a prodigy. From the opening lines of “Two Kinds,” the main character Jing-mei says, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get a good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous” (Charters, 590). This was the source of Jing-mei’s mother’s insistence toward her daughter’s success. The family in the story emigrated from China to the United States just like Tan's family, where they settled in San Francisco and gave birth to Jing-mei, the main character. The trouble comes in when Jing-mei’s mother seeks to turn her into a success by pushing her to become a child prodigy, someone that you might see on TV, someone famous. Jing-mei, however, does not have an interest in fame or fortune. In the context of her family life and culture, she seeks more than anything simply to be herself – on her own terms – and to be known and respected as such. At one point Jing-mei says, “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I am not”

In the short text “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, a woman , named Jing-Mei, is remembering the time when her mother thought that Jing-Mei could be a child prodigy. However, Jing-Mei knew that she was not a prodigy and she would never be one. Despite her protests, Jing-Mei's mother gets her a piano and piano lessons in the hopes that she might turn out to be a musical genius. Later Jing-Mei is forced to join a talent show so her mother can brag about her to friends and family. During the talent show Jing-Mei messes up, and is humiliated in front of her family and more importantly, her mother. After that incident, Jing-Mei and her mother get into get into an argument which causes Jing-Mei to mention her mother’s dead daughters and end the argument.

In the short story “Two Kinds” the author, Amy Tan, suggests that when a pleading child chooses to do something rather than being forced to do so he or she often becomes perfectly content with it. In the story, Jing-Mei’s mother believes that she is a prodigy and, therefore, forces Jing-Mei to take several tests other prodigy students had taken. After failing most of them, Jing-Mei’s mother has given up hope, until she hears a child prodigy playing the piano. She enrolls Jing-Mei in piano lessons with Mr. Chong, who is deaf. Feeling she can get away with not trying her hardest, Jing-Mei does not bother to practice the piano. As a result, she ends up failing terribly at a talent show. She becomes angry when, afterward, her mother still insists

In Two Kinds Jing Mei is told she is a prodigy, for her mother's own good. When Jing Mei learns to play the piano is when her rebellious side goes out and lashes out on her mother. According to the text “You want me to be someone I'm not” (Tan) when Jing Mei answers her mother with that type of answer the mother backlashes her child in tell her she should be an obedient child. On the mother’s perspective on the theme is that she just wants to show Jing MEi that she could be just as good as all of those americans including her sister. In the text Two Kinds the author states “Our problem worser than yours. If you ask Jing Mei wash dish, she hears nothing but music. It’s like you can't stop this natural talent”(Tan) when first seeing this the

Jing-mei is the protagonist in the short story “Two Kinds”. We are confronted with a young girl who herself does not believe she has the talent or the looks to become a start. Initially she is beyond eager to please her mother, make her mothers wishes for her come true. She wants nothing more then to make her parents proud. She knows her parent’s approval lies in her becoming a prodigy. Yet as time passes we are confronted with a Jing-mei that slowly looses hope, the hope of ever fulfilling her mother’s dreams, for no matter how much effort Mrs. Woo puts in to molding her in to a child prodigy, Jing-mei simply does not have the needed talent, or drive. Up until now she is a very consistent character, we expect her to always follow her mother’s lead, without rebellion, yet her character changes towards the second half.

Throughout the article, Jingmei’s tone from complaint about her childhood to understanding about her mother. In the beginning of the article, she discuss about her mother forced her to learn everythings and put very high expectation on her. Her mother asks her to learn about acting, piano, and she wants Jingmei to become a pedogy, however, Jingmei feels a lot of pressure from her family and her peers. She failed the piano prefomance in front of her family members, so she would not play the piano anymore. Also, her mother compares her to other children. Therefore when Jingmei describes her childhood, her tone was angry. Later on, after her mother passed away, she went back home and saw the piano, her tone becomes sad and begin to understand

The mother in the story wants her daughter, Jing-Mei, to become a prodigy. She wants Jing-Mei to do her best at everything she attempted. Jing-Mei does not want to listen to her mom, and she also does not want to do the tasks her mother gave her to do. Jing-Mei’s mom had her start playing piano, and Jing-Mei did what her mother told her to do. At the practices she didn’t strive for perfection, therefore Jing-Mei did not get any better. By the time of her performance she thought she was prepared for it, but when she played it was horrible. The mom was very disappointed at Jing-Mei, so they ended up never talked about again. The next day Jing-Mei’s mom told her she still needed to go to her piano lessons. During the argument, Jing-Mei said that she would never rise up to meet her mother’s expectations. This is when Jing-Mei’s mother gets very irritated “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 daughters!” (Tan 120). Jing-Mei’s mother cares and wants Jing-Mei to be successful in life, so that is why she yelled this at her daughter. Jing-Mei’s mom would be considered to be one of the scolding mothers in Buck’s quote. She may not show her love by her actions, but she shows her love by caring that Jing-Mei becomes something spectacular when she gets