Tan Two Kinds

Improved Essays
Show More
"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is about a relationship between a daughter and her mother. Amy Tan uses actions to explain the relationship being abusive. One of the actions to portray this relationship was that Amy Tan's mother slapped her (98). All because Amy Tan started questioning why her mother was not accepting her for who she is. Actions speak louder than words. Other actions in this story are when her mother and Old Chong decided to have her play at a talent show. "She snapped off the TV, yanked me by the arm and pulled me off the floor. She was frighteningly strong, half pulling, half carrying me towards the piano as I kicked the throw rugs under my feet. She lifted me up onto the hard bench. I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she were pleased that I was crying." (102). This shows that Tan’s mother doesn’t care for her happiness, she only cares about her being gifted. …show more content…
Her mother said "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 daughter!" (102). Amy Tan's mother constantly put her down, even before she stopped trying to be someone else. "Why don't you like me the way I am?" (98). Amy Tan even questions why her mother doesn't like her and yet. "Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!”? "So ungrateful," I heard her mutter in Chinese" (98). She is trying to make it look like she is doing nothing wrong. Telling why the relationship between them is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Lena St. Clair Fight Club Analysis
    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lena St. Clair Fight Club Analysis

    The miscommunication between Suyuan and June (Jing-mei) had created a generational difference and a cultural difference, since June disliked that her mother was “forcing” her into playing the piano, after watching a television show. June’s opinion on her mother’s decisions for her future was in dislike because using what June learned, she resisted the order of her surperior. Most Americans or Americanized persons are persistent of resisting a surperior’s orders, unless it would cost them something valuable. June applied this resistance towards her mother, and led to dislike her mother, and not practice on the piano. On the Jong’s side, Waverly had started playing chess after her brother Winston kept the chess set.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Tortilla Sun Comparison
    • 154 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Tortilla Sun Comparison

    In the passages from Confetti Girl and Tortilla Sun, the narrators create different points from their parents. These points of view cause great tension. These differences in Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez and Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, both create tension because each parent acts in a way that neglects the narrator's interests, the narrator has trouble connecting with their remaining parent, and both narrators want a sense of closeness. First, tension is caused in both stories because each parent acts in a way that neglects the narractor's interests. In the text of Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes, the narrator learns that her mother is leaving her to finish her college degree for summer.…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Joy Luck Club Quotes
    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Joy Luck Club Quotes

    Amah tells Ying-Ying to be unflustered. This quote conveys the roles of girls differ from boys. Growing up, the daughters are expected to follow orders without question. As women they must cook, clean, and all types of housework or chores only women are obliged to do. Quoted on page 56, “Teach her how to wash rice properly so that the water runs clear.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Joy Luck Club Identity And Identity
    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Joy Luck Club Identity And Identity

    As a child, Jing-mei never felt that she lived up to her mother’s expectations. "Why don’t you like me the way I am! I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Amy Tan Comparison
    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Amy Tan Comparison

    Assignment 3 Comparison Although Richard Rodriguez and Amy Tan both had a distinct perception of the importance of their intimate family language, they both had the same similarities of facing the struggles they perceived society required of them which was learning the English language. Both Tan and Rodriguez faced these struggles at different points of their lives and had to manage whether they would let the English language conflict with their family’s language. They are fighting to identify whom they want to be in society and whether they want to maintain their roots and language of their culture or adapt to where they now reside. Aside from their differences the similarities they both shared with each other was significant due to them being in the same position and deciding whether they wanted to…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Violin By Amy Tan Analysis
    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Violin By Amy Tan Analysis

    The Violin by Amy Chua and Two Kinds by Amy Tan are two novels about a mother-daughter relationship. The speakers utilize varying tones when speaking of recollections of their memories. Chua’s and Tan’s use of tense and hostile tones help illustrate the drama in the relationships that blankets the love between the mother and daughter. Amy Tan’s recounts of her past prove to be escalated versions of Amy Chau’s with lesser presence of love; however, love remains a driving force behind both of the mothers’ harsh encouragement. “The Violin” illustrates the mother-daughter relationship of Amy Chua and her daughter Lulu.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Two Kinds
    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Two Kinds

    “Two Kinds” is a story based on a mother and daughter, and how they had their own opinions on how the daughter should be. The mother wanted the best for her daughter, but she also wanted her daughter become something she wasn’t, a child prodigy. The daughter tried to please her mother but in the end she just wanted to be herself, to stick to her own mindset, not her mother's. She tried everything in beginning that her mother wanted her to do, but later grew out of trying to please her mom because she believed it to be unrealistic. She knew she just wasn’t the child that could become a prodigy, at least she didn’t believe that she could be.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Why Don T You Like Me The Way I Am?
    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    Why Don T You Like Me The Way I Am?

    Eventually, she rebels and starts to disobey her mother and stops following her instruction as a way to protest her endless list of expectations. However, it is obvious that she still cares very much about what her mother thinks of her. This becomes obvious when she reveals what devastated her at the piano recital was her mother’s expression, which was a “quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything.” (Tan, 391). This demonstrates how much her mother’s emotions can influence her despite her determination to not be changed anymore.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Jing-Mei's Change In Two Kinds By Amy Tan
    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jing-Mei's Change In Two Kinds By Amy Tan

    Parents seem like they always push their kids to do something that they don’t want to do. Have you ever wondered why parents often force their children to do things they don’t want to do? “You want me to be someone that I’m not” (Tan 231). “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. The conflict in the story was that Jing-mei’s mother wanted her to be a prodigy but she didn’t want to listen to her mother.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Comparing Girl And Two Kinds
    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Comparing Girl And Two Kinds

    Mothers and daughters have different points of view about dreams in their lives. Mothers draw in their minds the kind of life their daughters will be in the future. They do not consider their expectations are far away from their daughters dreams. In this world, mothers and daughters do not conceive the same thoughts about someone future. Mothers regularly make plans towards their daughters’ lives without thinking their daughters have other plans which differ from them.…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis
    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Amy Tan Mother Tongue Analysis

    In the story “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan tries to distinguish the difference between two different cultures as a child. She is raised by her mother who speaks “broken” English, and the outside world where perfect English is spoken. Amy had a hard time as a child because of the different Englishes that were spoken. Tan as an adult continues to find the difference between the languages that are spoken, even though she knows that the one spoken by her mother will never improve. Tan’s attitude towards mother tongue starts as being embarrassed and ashamed, because Mother Tongue was the only type of English that her mother could speak.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Theme Of Conflict In Two Kinds By Amy Tan
    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Theme Of Conflict In Two Kinds By Amy Tan

    Two Kinds Author Amy Tan gives a remarkable look in the story “Two Kinds” into the dynamics of a clash of culture in one family. At some points in the story, it is hard to tell the protagonist from the antagonist. The man vs man conflict between mother and daughter is dynamic as it flows between them. Another interesting conflict is the battle between “Ni Kan’s” and “Waverly”, in addition to her mother and “Auntie Lindo” struggle to prove which daughter is more talented. The conflict of man vs man between Ni Kan’s mother and Auntie Lindo is in direct correlation the man vs man between her mother and Auntie Lindo.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Stereotypes In The Story Of Amy Tan's Two Kinds?
    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stereotypes In The Story Of Amy Tan's Two Kinds?

    Tan writes of the relationship between mother and daughter as one full of unhappiness and disappointment for both of them. Jing-mei, for instance, was in a state of discontent with her mother’s demands, refusing to work hard and hone her skills as a pianist almost out of spite. As a result, her mother was ultimately let down by Jing-mei’s lack of effort and poor performance; her daughter’s failure may well have stung more for the mother than for Jing-mei herself. However, Jing-mei’s mother truly loved her, though that was not always clear to Jing-mei. In spite of the daughter’s abject and purposeful lack of success, her mother offered up forgiveness in the form of the what had once been a stinging reminder of failure: the…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan
    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Theme Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan

    When Jing was a young child, she could be pictured as a “Pleading Child” because of the way she argues against her mother’s plan by turning her into a child prodigy. She wants to become her own individual, and not have her mom make her someone that she is not. Moreover though, as she gets older she becomes “Perfectly Contented” because she realizes that her mother never intended to upset her or make her feel inadequate in anyway. In the end, the mother just wanted her daughter to become happy and successful. As an adult, she realizes this when she looks at the piano and feels “proud”, as though it were a trophy that she had “won back.”…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    What Is The Conflict In Who's Irish By Gish Jen
    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What Is The Conflict In Who's Irish By Gish Jen

    She ends up disciplining her the way a proper Chinese girl is raised, after she misbehaves which according to her it is through spanking. This brings conflict between the narrator and her daughter, Natalie. The two women argue and the narrator ends up having to move out. Eventually end up spending very little time with each other. Culture defines who we are.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings