Filial Duty In Amy Tan's 'Two Kinds'

Analysis of Abuse on Filial Duty in Two Short Stories

Filial piety is the widely known ideology that children must be respectful towards their elders and ancestors. This is a common belief in many countries around the world, especially in societies influenced by Confucian values like China. Filial duty is the obligation children have to their parents to be obedient and submissive to their requests. While these values are practiced to varying degrees in families globally, the significance of these obligations and respect can diminish over time. “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan tells a story of a Chinese girl growing up in America. The girl’s mother has big dreams for her to become a genius or prodigy, and thus forces her to practice various talents,

Children who are physically abused are more likely to rebel against their parents. In “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei is always following her mother’s orders so she could be a prodigy at something, like the piano. After Jing-mei embarrasses her mother and herself at the talent show, she realizes she does not want to continue learning the piano, but her mother forces her to go to practice. Her mother “yanked [her] by the arm, pulled [her] off the floor, snapped off the TV”, which made Jing-mei terrified since her mom was “frighteningly strong” (Tan). Afterward, Jing-mei sobbed to her mom, saying “You want me to be something I’m not. I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be” (Tan). Jing-mei’s mother physically harmed Jing-mei since she “yanked” and “pulled” her. The rough and angry tone used during this part of the story suggests the intense feelings that Jing-mei and her mother were feeling during this scene. Indeed, this implies that because of the physical abuse, Jing-mei becomes afraid and disappointed in her mom showing that she refuses to practice the piano anymore. Similarly, in “Barn Burning”, Sartoris’s father, Abner, sat in court to testify about burning a barn down. The victim of the barn burning called Sartoris to testify against his father, but Abner stopped him before he said anything. Later, Abner talks to Sartoris about family loyalty and “struck [Sartoris] with the flat side of his

In both “Two Kinds” and “Barn Burning”, the children successfully detach themselves from their parents' misguided ways and establish their own identities. In “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei breaks free from playing the piano and her mother’s dreams as she “failed [her mother] so many times, each time asserting her own will”. She “didn’t get straight As”, “didn’t become class president”, “didn’t get into Stanford” and she “dropped out of college” (Tan). Jing-mei did the opposite of what her mother wanted. She was not smart, did not have any special talents, and did not complete college. This implies that Jing-mei was able to break out of her filial duty to her mother and become her own person by “asserting her own will”. Furthermore, in “Barn Burning”, Sartoris, after realizing his father intends on burning down another barn, decides to free himself from his mother’s grip to warn De Spain about his father’s intent. After warning De Spain, Sartoris ran away: “his back toward what he had called home”, implying that he ran away from the rest of the family and decided to start his own life (Faulkner). By renouncing his filial obligations towards his parents, Sartoris can escape and forge his own identity without dealing with his father’s immoral actions. This suggests that, by defying filial duty, children are in control of their own futures, which can be beneficial to their