The Two Kinds By Amy Tan

Amy Tan had many personal experiences in her story. For example, when Amy Tan was living in Northern California, her mother had very high expectations on her. Her mother wanted her to be with the American society and be the best she could be. Amy Tan had to get a haircut very short to the way other famous children were acting in the United States. Amy’s mother was the one who encouraged this. With that, in the story “Two Kinds,” the young girl named Jing-mei live in a part of California and she had to get a very short haircut. Jing-mei’s mother wanted her daughter to look and act the same way Shirley Temple did. Within both of the girls lives, they each had to act like an already famous person exactly to please their mothers.

The mother in the story tries everything in her power to make Jing-mei famous in some way. Yet Jing-mei was content to being herself.

In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman.

The short story "A Pair of Tickets," authored by Amy Tan is a detailed analysis of issues that concern many people that are of a different descent but that have been residents or migrated to another country for a long time. The story was written in such a way that if one does not take cognizance of interpretation of stories; one may not really gesticulate what the author is trying to portray. The story was about a young American student on a journey for the first time to China with a plan of reuniting with her half-sisters for the first time after the demise of her mother. The writer made use of stereotypes and prevalence of internal conflicts in presenting the theme of the story to the readers for easy understanding. The Protagonist or

In the article,” Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," author Amy Chua describes how parenting is approached in Chinese culture as compared to "Western parents." She compares Western and Chinese parents on how they approach their children’s' upbringings. She gives examples from her experiences raising her own daughters. Chua's daughters were not allowed to attend sleepovers and could not score grades any lower than an "A" in school classes. Chua also forced her kids in learning a piece for the piano. In separate story, author Amy Tan discusses the mother-daughter relationship in Chinese-American culture in "Two Kinds." This story is told from the viewpoint of an American-born Chinese girl named Jing-mei. Her immigrant mother, Mrs. Woo, believes that being in America is freedom and wants her daughter to take advantage of that freedom. Her mother has her try several activities in an attempt to

United States is a country with a big cultural diversity. Persons from all the countries, especially from the least developed ones, start a new life in this country with the only purpose of reach the American Dream. A better economic position, life style and educational opportunities for their family, are some of the facts that immigrates are looking for in America. All these privileges are not enough for them to forget their background. The reading Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and the movie The Namesake by Dir. Mira Nair, show two different stories about how the new family in America struggle with the parent’s culture and what American culture is. Immigrants, such as me, have to face many life changes when arriving for first time to America, such as different beliefs and ideologies, different language and new economic opportunities

Throughout the story, Jing-mei’s feelings toward her mother change in dramatic ways. When Jing-mei was a young girl, she idolized and looked forward to impressing her mother. Eagerly, Jing-mei retorts,

Their feelings changed due to the way they acted towards each other and how they interpreted events in their lives. As a result, it caused many future conflicts to occur within their lives. Jing-mei and her mother both reflect the ways that real mothers and daughters act in the world with each other. There is always two ways of seeing life, but never forget there is only one correct way to see happiness in

2. Although Jing Mei is too young to know what was her mother’s real thought, she gives a clear description of what her mother said, did, how she did it. Some

After reading “The New Second Generation,” by Protes and Zhou, the understanding of grow up in an immigrant family has been hard for most people, and some individuals are divided by the struggles of cultural demands and new unfamiliar environment. The second generation immigrants had a different experience than the first generation immigrants, whereas the second generation often time will be confused of what pathway they should follow, such as pleasing their cultural background yet trying to explore a new society. Even the second generation had dealt with conflicts due to the nature of their skin, such as descendants of European immigrants were treated better than the descendants of Mexico, Asia, or

While Amy Tan composes her novel out of distinct narratives, she interweaves the stories by means of recurrent themes and symbols. Having immigrated after the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by Congress, all four women lament the alienation from their daughters who have lost rapport with their mothers and their Chinese heritage by embracing the lifestyle and attitude of the American mainstream culture. In addition to the common themes of immigration and generational conflict, Tan interrelates her stories through the themes of food, dream, and language.

Remembering conversations she had with her mother, Jing-Mei notes, “I think about what my mother said, about activating my genes and becoming Chinese. And I wonder what she meant. Right after my mother died, I asked myself a lot of things… to force myself to grieve more. But now I ask the questions mostly because I want to know the answers” (Tan, 270-71). She feels as though it is too late to have closure with her mother, putting a strain on her relationship with the rest of her family.

The short story “Two Kinds” written by Amy Tan uses many literacy devises in it such as conflict, foil, syntax, point of view, setting, and theme. These literary devices help show the conflict in the story between the daughter and mother and there cultural difference in being Chinese and a Chinese-American. The first two literary devices to talk about go together which are conflict and foil. Conflict being the mother wanting something different then what the daughter wants for herself.

It is unquestionable that numerous short stories in present-day include topics discussing the importance of family values and acknowledgement of culture. The main factor that sets the two stories “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” apart from countless is the fact that the two central characters are remarkably unique yet strikingly relatable. In the story “Flight Patterns” the main character William, is a Spokane Indian who embraces his culture and heritage. On the other hand, in “A Pair of Tickets” the central character, Jing-Mei, is a woman who genuinely did not regard herself as Chinese for a majority of her life. The values of family and importance of heritage are both exemplified in “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” however,

In the short story “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, she keeps her focus mainly on the relationship of mother and daughter. Author describes their relationship in such a way which gives many lessons and morals from this short story. The main focus of the story is that the mother, who was an immigrant from China, once told her daughter the importance of their culture and heritage. Her daughter Jandale woo, who is almost completely ignorant of their heritage and culture, is thoroughly Americanized who doesn’t know much about her background. Mother also told her daughter that she will realize that cultures and heritages are important part of life. After her mother, dies she travels to China with her father and meets to their relatives. During her visit, she learns a lot about her background and culture which makes her realize that how culture and heritage holds an important place in everyone’s life.