FREE ESSAY ON AMY TAN'S TWO KINDS

AMY TAN'S TWO KINDS

For a lot of us growing up, our mothers have been an integral part of what made us who we
are. They have been the one to forgive us when no one else could. They have been the one
to comfort us when the world seemed to turn to evil. They have been the one to shelter us
when the rain came pouring down. And most importantly, they have been the one to love us
when we needed it the most. 
In "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, Jing-mei is a young daughter of a Chinese immigrant. Growing
up she had to endure being raised by an overbearing mother as well as deal with
psychological struggles within herself. She had to learn how to become a woman on her own
terms. 
Throughout the story, her mother repeatedly pressures Jing-mei to be something that she
is not. She wants Jing-mei to somehow become a prodigy child. She has such high hopes for
her daughter that she doesn't realize the amount of distress she causes Jing-mei. Like
all good mothers, she only wants the best for her child. Since immigrating to America,
she believes that anything can be accomplished and she uses her daughter as her outlet to
prove it. She continuously gives Jing-mei numerous tests to memorize bible passages and
world capitals, and eventually coerces her into taking piano lessons, which becomes the
prime focus of her 'perfect daughter' determination. Jing-mei reacts extremely negatively
to this pressure. This is only exemplified when she states, "'I won't let her change me,
I promised myself. I won't be what I am not." She is forced to take a stance against her
mother primarily because she doesn't want to be forced into becoming something that she
is not. Jing-mei feels she must become her true self, a person whom she feels her mother
is not to determine for her. Jing-mei feels uncomfortable with her mother putting so much
pressure on her. She is on a continuous struggle within herself to find who she really
is. She is constantly distraught over torn feelings of wanted to become her true self and
making her mother proud. Still, as time goes on it proves to be better to go against the
tide, go against her mother's wishes. "And after seeing my mother's disappointed face
once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, they raised hopes and
failed expectations." This quote only exemplifies her troubled feelings of inadequacy
that her mother's expectations created. She sobbed and said during an argument, I'll
never be the kind of daughter you want me to be! She asked, Why don't you like me the way
I am? The only way she could handle her mother's expectations was to always succumb to
defeat. 
By the end of the story the outlook on these pressures take a different turn. Jing-mei
has matured from a girl into a woman and, as a peace offering, her mother offers to give
her the piano-the main object of adversity between the two of them. This offers her the
realization that she has become herself on her own terms, even with all of this hardship
In this story, the piano symbolizes different things for the two of them. For Jing-mei,
it symbolized the unwanted stress her mother inflicts upon her, the pressure to become
someone she is not. And, for her mother it symbolizes the hope in the child, the hope
that she will become a prodigy child, the hope that coming to America gave her. "America
was where all my mother's hopes lay.'' This statement only reiterates this free hope
America and the piano gave her. 
The piano piece she had once struggled to play as a child was entitled Pleading Child and
was very slow and difficult. She saw that on the next page was a song called Perfectly
Contented which was quick and happy. These were two halves of the same song, which is
symbolization to her life. During her childhood she had felt dissatisfied with her life
and with the choices she was forced to make. As an adult she was offered the piano she
had found her inner peace. She had reconciled the issues of her failures and knew that
her mother never considered them failures. It was just the love from a mother that she
had for her daughter. The two songs symbolized her transformation into becoming the woman
she now is.