Amy Tan Identity

Influences on Both Sides of a Spectrum
Parents influences can have positive or negative effects on their children’s identities. In Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña, Danny is encouraged to make a choice about his future by his mom. And in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the narrator supported her daughter financially as she grew. But in “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the mother forces an identity upon her daughter. Parents can sometimes influence their children's identity, positively or negatively, by encouraging them, giving them financial support, or by forcing identities on them.
To positively affect their children's lives, parents can encourage their children to make a choice for their own future. In Mexican Whiteboy, by Matt de la Peña, Danny Lopez is encouraged by his mom to decide for himself whether he wants to go to his Mexican cousin’s place for the

In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, the child, Jing Mei, wants to please her mother, so she follows along with her mother’s dream for her to be a prodigy. For a while, she felt like she was destined for exactly what her mother wanted: “I was filled with a sense that I would soon be perfect: my mother and father would adore me” (Tan). She was confident that she would become exactly what her mother wanted, but soon, the situation took a turn for the worse. As time went on, she began to resent her mother for what she was trying to turn her into, so she rebelled: “‘Why don’t you like me the way I am?’ I cried, ‘I’m not a genius!...’”(Tan) When Jing Mei realizes her mother only wants a famous child to be able to brag, she decides to only be who she wants to be, and not follow her mother’s orders. During this time, Jing Mei is very sad, because she is being forced into being something by her parents. This negative effect can really make a child feel useless as who they