Amy Tan Two Kinds Analysis

During the prolonged era of immigration in the late twentieth-century in the United States, many foreigners entering the country for permanent settlement often set a high expectation of life, especially for their descendants. This prevalence stereotype is primarily explored in the literary fiction work of a Chinese-American citizen, Amy Tan, “Two Kinds” (1989). The protagonist, Jing Mei, undergoes and experience a variety of stress factors during her adolescence, particularly from her mother, who established excessive expectations for her daughter’s life. In correspondence with the accumulation of stress and emphasis on pressure, the young protagonist initiated to become impudent enough to demonstrate her rebellious and disobedient attitude …show more content…
She had a solid notion that “you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous,” (Tan, 180). The statement mentioned above displays the detail that she is somewhat unrealistic with her interpretation of American immigration (e.g. becoming instantly famous), albeit the idea that others she has mentioned are practical. She, consequently, evolved her preconception and begins to impose a series of pressuring concepts. In a particular scene, Jing Mei was advised by her mom that she “could be a Chinese Shirley Temple… My mother would poke my arm and say, ‘ni kan’- You watch” (Tan, 180). Readers has many opportunities to observe how her mother wants Jing Mei to be like Shirley Temple, a famous media figure during the early 1900s whom shined since her early childhood, but with the ante-adjective “Chinese” (Harmetz). Instead of allowing her daughter to develop her own character, she is attempting to provide “identities” to her daughter, as she lacks the ability to recognize the severity of her …show more content…
Neglecting the preconception that maternal love for their children is astronomical, she disrespectfully causes immense soreness and discomfort for her mother as she “remembered the babies she [her mother] had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. ‘Then I wish I’d never been born!’ I shouted. ‘I wish I were dead! Like them [Jing Mei’s mother’s babies whom died in China]” (Tan, 186). As a result of her exploitation of discourteous phrases, her mother was stunned and possibly traumatizes as it brings back the old memories and regrets, despite the fact that her mother previously mentioned that she has no lament regarding her past history in