The short story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan tells about a young Chinese girl named Ni Kan who lives in America and learns to play the piano. I will be comparing and contrasting this story to my personal story, where as a child I moved to China and learned to play the piano. There are some similarities and some surprising differences in the stories obstacles, conflicts, and transformations.
In the story "Two Kinds" Ni Kan faced many obstacles trying to learn to play the piano. Her first obstacle was that she did not want to play the piano at all! For example, the text says " my mother had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six. When my mother told me this, …show more content…
Her mother was able to come to terms with Ni Kan never reaching the goals she had dreamed for her. They were able to forgive each other and grow a healthier relationship. This was signified when her mother tried to gift her the piano on her 30th birthday, she refused but thought " I saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed."
In a similar way, I had the obstacle of wanting to be a wonderful pianist without all the work required to master the skill. At first, I too did not want to play the piano. My parents insisted that I play and become proficient. I complained all the way to lessons and escape practiced when I was able. I also had a problematic teacher who thought the best way to teach a five-year-old the piano was to spank my hands with a ruler every time I missed or hit an incorrect …show more content…
Bickering about practicing and thinly veiled threat about what would happen if I resisted. My conflicts differed from Ni Kan's in that the worst conflict I had with my mom was not an over whether to play the piano or not, but what dress I had to wear to the recitals. My mother would find the gaudiest, fluffy, bows and tool dresses that she could find and force me to wear it for the competitions. I abhorred all of them, so much so that once I squat down, put the tale of the bow under my heel and jerked up to free myself of the ribbon monstrosity. Naturally, that backfired resulting in me standing in my undergarments receiving a lecture from my angry mother who quickly pulled out the sewing machine and put the bow back on. I gave up to stay away from punishment, wearing what I was told for the concert been bringing a change of clothes for the soonest opportunity.
As Ni Kan’s life calmed after the end of her piano career, conversely my life transform to peaceful when I decided to put more time and effort into learning the black-and-white keys. As I made the instrument my own I also absorbed my parents need for perfection. Also unlike Ni Kan’s story, there's nothing to forgive. I understood that my parents do not care if I could play the piano or not, what they wanted was for me to see that I could persevere through rough patches to reach a goal and that to practice is to learn, and I could be applied
In the story "Two Kinds" Ni Kan faced many obstacles trying to learn to play the piano. Her first obstacle was that she did not want to play the piano at all! For example, the text says " my mother had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six. When my mother told me this, …show more content…
Her mother was able to come to terms with Ni Kan never reaching the goals she had dreamed for her. They were able to forgive each other and grow a healthier relationship. This was signified when her mother tried to gift her the piano on her 30th birthday, she refused but thought " I saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed."
In a similar way, I had the obstacle of wanting to be a wonderful pianist without all the work required to master the skill. At first, I too did not want to play the piano. My parents insisted that I play and become proficient. I complained all the way to lessons and escape practiced when I was able. I also had a problematic teacher who thought the best way to teach a five-year-old the piano was to spank my hands with a ruler every time I missed or hit an incorrect …show more content…
Bickering about practicing and thinly veiled threat about what would happen if I resisted. My conflicts differed from Ni Kan's in that the worst conflict I had with my mom was not an over whether to play the piano or not, but what dress I had to wear to the recitals. My mother would find the gaudiest, fluffy, bows and tool dresses that she could find and force me to wear it for the competitions. I abhorred all of them, so much so that once I squat down, put the tale of the bow under my heel and jerked up to free myself of the ribbon monstrosity. Naturally, that backfired resulting in me standing in my undergarments receiving a lecture from my angry mother who quickly pulled out the sewing machine and put the bow back on. I gave up to stay away from punishment, wearing what I was told for the concert been bringing a change of clothes for the soonest opportunity.
As Ni Kan’s life calmed after the end of her piano career, conversely my life transform to peaceful when I decided to put more time and effort into learning the black-and-white keys. As I made the instrument my own I also absorbed my parents need for perfection. Also unlike Ni Kan’s story, there's nothing to forgive. I understood that my parents do not care if I could play the piano or not, what they wanted was for me to see that I could persevere through rough patches to reach a goal and that to practice is to learn, and I could be applied