Two kinds by Amy Tan

Two kinds by Amy Tan

            Two kinds by Amy Tan is a short story depicting the relationship between an immigrant Chinese mother and her first generation American daughter Jing-mei and how the different cultural setting Chinese for the mother and American for the daughter affects their relationship.

            The mother believes that the daughter should be exceptional, this is especially because she is an immigrant who had lost everything including children before immigrating to America. Therefore, she puts pressure on her daughter to perform very highly this can be seen when she tells her “you can become rich. You can become instantly famous.” She also tells her daughter “you can be best anything.”

            Jing-mei on the other hand does not believe that she has to do what her parents says, she starts out in the beginning wanting to be a prodigy and needing her parents to adore her but she later believes that she has free will and does not have to pursue the dreams of her mother this is best illustrated when she says “this wasn’t china I had listened to her before, and look what happened she was the stupid one” she also pretends to be bored when her mother presents her with one of her many tests.

            Jing- mei’s mother believes that children must be obedient and must always follow what their parents say, even though her daughter shows her time and again that she is not interested in doing the things she wants her to do. For instance, she tells her daughter that “there only two kinds of daughters those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind.”

            The story is important as it shows how immigrants and their children may have a hard time understanding each other because of their different cultural influences and settings. In the end Jing-mei changes her attitude towards her mother as she realizes that her mother pushed her to do her best, and that her and her mother wanted the same thing “” I realized they were two halves of the same song.”