There has always been a time where you might've thought to yourself, "I'm not enough," or "I will never be enough." With this mindset embedded into your brain, it's hard to believe that you will ever be proven wrong in these circumstances. In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, Jing-mei tries to fight off who she's not but is compelled by her mother to become the prodigy that she's always hoped for in her daughter. These two forces collide, causing conflict within their relationship where Jing-mei faces the tough reality that she cannot be what her mother wants her to be because of the high expectations parents have for their children, but what she aspires to be.
Firstly, growing up as the eldest child had its drawbacks since I was the one constantly being compared to everyone who excelled in areas where I couldn't. My …show more content…
This made me feel a sort of nervousness that appeared when I thought that my special talent might potentially abandon me, as if that was what my parents were trying to tell me the whole time. Furthermore, being the oldest meant having to become a good role model for my younger siblings so that they could follow through my footsteps as we got older. There has always been some sort of problem where my parents were constantly pointing out my flaws in comparison between friends and family, similar to how Jing-mei envied Waverly, with the constant battle between their mothers bragging about how talented their child was. Moreover, whenever I had bad news for my parents, whether it'd be a poor grade or a mediocre ranking in competitions, it would put me in distress to see their disappointed faces. Jing-mei had also gone through an experience much like mine during her first piano recital as she states, "But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything" (723). This is able to portray how embarrassed her mother could have been after believing
Firstly, growing up as the eldest child had its drawbacks since I was the one constantly being compared to everyone who excelled in areas where I couldn't. My …show more content…
This made me feel a sort of nervousness that appeared when I thought that my special talent might potentially abandon me, as if that was what my parents were trying to tell me the whole time. Furthermore, being the oldest meant having to become a good role model for my younger siblings so that they could follow through my footsteps as we got older. There has always been some sort of problem where my parents were constantly pointing out my flaws in comparison between friends and family, similar to how Jing-mei envied Waverly, with the constant battle between their mothers bragging about how talented their child was. Moreover, whenever I had bad news for my parents, whether it'd be a poor grade or a mediocre ranking in competitions, it would put me in distress to see their disappointed faces. Jing-mei had also gone through an experience much like mine during her first piano recital as she states, "But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything" (723). This is able to portray how embarrassed her mother could have been after believing