Short Story Analysis: Two Kinds

In America, you can be anything you want according to Junes mother Suyuan. The story “Two Kinds” is about a young girl named June whose mother tries just about everything in her power to make her daughter into a child prodigy. The mother Suyuan moved to America from China after losing everything including her twin daughters, and is now pushing her only daughter June almost every day to become big in any field of talent she can. While experimenting these different fields, June finds herself not being able to be the best at them and feels as though her mother does not like her as she is and that she will never be able to make her proud. The author of “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan creates a touching story by making the mother a static protagonist because she tries to make her daughter into someone she’s not, puts pressure and emotional stress on the main character, and doesn’t accept her daughter for who she already is. Suyuan brings the majority of the conflict to the story. The mother brings conflict into the story when she attempts to make June into someone she is not after comparing her to other children that she sees on television. For example, in the third paragraph the author writes “We’d watch Shirley’s old movies on TV as though they were training films” (Tan, 471). That part of the story indicates that the mother is trying to train June into becoming just like the little girl seen on TV. In addition, Suyuan goes as far as taking June to get