Amy Tan Two Kinds Essay

The short story Two Kinds by Amy Tan is about the role of a child and reveals that children both need guidance from their parents and a resolve of their own. Excess encouragement makes a child indifferent and express their own will. Parental desire for one’s progeny to be a prodigy is acceptable, but majority of the time, the child does not truly desire to be wunderkind after experiencing the difficult training it requires. The story follows an American Chinese girl, Jing-mei, and her reflection upon her early childhood. Convinced by the American idea of opportunity, Jing-mei’s mother left behind her Chinese upbringings after the loss of her family. Equipped with an optimistic perspective, she “believed you can be anything you wanted in America” (1). Of course, that means even a child can reach fame. As a parent, wanting the best for your own family is instinctual, so she forced Jing-mei to study and learn the piano. Truthfully, reaching that level of prestige only exists as a concept, due to the imperfections of a human, The traits of a human that prevents them from being perfect, is laziness and stubbornness in being slothful. The

While performing, she realized the beauty of the piece she was playing, but played terribly due to her resolution to not learn the piece earlier. Finally, Jing-mei came to realization on how she disappointed her parents and some of the crowd. However, it was not the end of her piano lessons, and when confronted to this fact, she made a final stand on how she can not be something she does not want to be, In her later life, she lead a slippery slope and eventually become a college dropout. On her thirtieth birthday, she received her old piano equipment. She realized that the song that she played that day was only half of a larger piece. The other half is symbolism on how a person needs them and their parents to make a completed