ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Rice And Rose Bowl Blues

654 Words3 Pages

Compulsion at its Finest

Do you ever do what you want instead of doing what your parents think is best for you? Many teenagers admit to feeling this way. The two engaging texts, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “Rice and Rose Bowl Blues” by Diane Mei Lin Mark have a very similar theme. “Two Kinds” is about a young girl named Jing-mei who struggles to form her sense of identity in the face of her strong-willed, zealous mother’s dream that she will become a prodigy. While “Rice and Rose Bowl Blues” is about a young girl who daydreams about the days she used to play football with her brothers and neighbors until she gets called into her house by her mother to learn how to take on the role of a real woman and learn how to cook rice. . Using imagery, …show more content…

the readers and to justify the theme. Tan uses details to reveal how Jing-mei feels, “So now on nights when my mother presented her tests, I performed listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored. And I was… And the next day, I played a game with myself, seeing if my mother would give up on me before eight bellows. After a while I usually counted only one, maybe two bellows at most. At last she was beginning to give up hope” (Tan 223). While Jing-mei's mother is testing her knowledge, the way she is responding to it will help the readers to realize that she's sabotaging herself later on. Another example can be proven by using imagery: “I looked at my reflection, blinking so I could see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. This girl and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rather thoughts filled with lots of won’ts. I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not” (Tan 223). This quote relates back to the theme because it manifests how Jing-mei will not let the pressure her mother is putting on her shoulders get the best of her. Clearly, the imagery and details help the reader understand Jing-mei’s intense emotions as she comes to grips with her frustration at not being able to please her

Show More
Related
667 Words | 3 Pages

This quote emphasizes how much she is over exaggerating her performance. Imagery and Hyperbole gives the reader a good understanding of how Jing-mei felt about her

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

Characterization can be seen in ‘Two Kinds’ when Jing-Mei’s laziness and unwillingness to cooperate with her mother’s wishes is shown. This highlights the fact that she prefers doing things in her own easy way, rather than how her mother wants. In ‘Rice and Rose Bowl Blues’, we also see that same kind of unwillingness to cooperate, because the girl is always trying to avoid cleaning the rice. An exact excerpt that proves this can be seen here, “I started out the door / but was called back” (Lin Mark, page 520). This shows us that the girl refuses to do what she is told to, hence running towards the door.

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

Jing-Mei realizes that her mother gives her two halves of the same song because it tells the story of Jing-Mei’s life. As a kid Jing-Mei was sad and depressed, but as an adult Jing-Mei is happy and free. The purpose for Jing-Mei’s mother to give her the two halves of the piano song were to help Amy realize who she was, and who she is today. In conclusion, Jing Mei learns about her identity through two piano

Read More
1066 Words | 5 Pages

This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication. One of the difficulties between Jing-Mei and her mother is their different cultural backgrounds, which is supported by two points from the story. Firstly, Jing-Mei and her mother both disagreed on the opportunities that existed in America. According to Singer, Amy Tan uses “two entirely

Read More
1382 Words | 6 Pages

Later on Jing-mei receives a piano for her thirteenth birthday. When her parents give her the gift she thought its a sign of forgiveness for her not continuing with chess. Sacrifice for love throughout the novel was shown not as many times, but still relates to control over one’s destiny. When Rose realizes that Ted’s bad choices lead to being a bad husband. She talks to her friends Waverly and Lena about the problem and they tell her “You were depressed.

Read More
810 Words | 4 Pages

This causes Jing-mei to pay the price of still wanting to have more knowledge of what her mother thinks and intends after her

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

And she’s the only person I could have asked, to tell me about life’s importance to help me understand my grief (Tan 220). Suyuan’s death had a big effect on Jing-Mei through the rest of the story because of the dependance she had towards Suyuan to help her figure out her

Read More
1303 Words | 6 Pages

The main character of the story, Jing-Mei, is expected to become the next great prodigy and gets forced by her mother, Mrs. Woo, to become a prodigy no matter what in which Jing-mei doesn’t want to take any part in, ultimately causing her not to like her mom and her mom being disappointed in her creating a complex relationship due to the different perspectives. From the use of stylistic devices such as Imagery along with a great deal of symbolism, Tan emphasizes the need for everyone to set realistic and necessary expectations for themselves accordingly to find their own identity. Clearly shown in the story, Jing-Mei and Mrs. Woo have different perspectives of each other as they both act like opposites. Tan uses stylistic devices such as symbolism to convey deeper meaning and explore the complex relationships between mother and daughter.

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

Regardless, her mother still is persistent on Jing Mei becoming a prodigy, despite her passionless performance and her family’s negative reaction. In return, Jing Mei becomes angry at her mother, and will do anything to change her mind. Screaming, “I wish I were dead! Like them.”, her mother freezes, disappointed in her daughter, and quits Jing Mei’s piano classes. On Page 28-29, Jing Mei’s perspective on the world becomes more apparent: “For unlike my mother, I didn’t believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me.”

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

The conflict between parents and teenagers is that when the children do something they think is good some parents do not give them all the encouragement they need; a protagonist in a short story felt the same way: “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!” I cried” (Tan 225).

Read More
1369 Words | 6 Pages

At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings

Read More
2019 Words | 9 Pages

She then uses these “new thoughts” and ideas to state that she “won’t let her [mother] change” her into the person she seeks her daughter to be. When Jing-Mei experiences a realization that she is her own person and not simply another part of her mother, she can embrace the comfort of knowing that she will not change for anyone, and is simply extraordinary for having her own thoughts and feelings. This reflects how Amy Tan can understand her thoughts and feelings about the hardships in her relationship with her mother as a way to connect more closely to her characters and make them more realistic in her writing (“How Amy Tan’s family stories made her a

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment.

Read More
1309 Words | 6 Pages

At her first glance at them, she knew exactly who they were because of their resemblance to their mother. However, as she approached them, she realized that there were no evident similarities in features between them and her mother, but that the similarities she noticed at first ran deep in their blood: they were family. And at this brief moment of realization, the most perceptible change in Jing-Mei took place. She said, “Now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious.

Read More
477 Words | 2 Pages

“For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me.” (Tan 24). With this statement you can see that she does not agree with her mother. Jing-Mei’s Mother was raised in Chinese culture, therefore she is very strict and demanding to Jing-Mei to do what she wants. From doing a chore, to hobbies or even Jing-Mei’s passion.

Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Rice And Rose Bowl Blues

Related Topics

Open Document