Jing-Mei's Transformation In Two Kinds By Amy Tan
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Throughout her childhood life her mother, Suyuan, was continuously pushing her to be her best. Jing-Mei purposely tried to fail at everything to prover to her mother that she could never become a great and famous person. Then after a piano recital that went horridly wrong, her and her mother had an argument and their relationship was never the same. Many years later Suyuan tried to give Jing-mei the piano that she had as a child. She refused the offer, but than a year later her mother died and Jing-Mei was cleaning out her mother’s house and decided to play the piano and she was surprised that she still knew how.
As Jing-mei’s mother is telling her that she has to go play piano, the reader can imagine how she gets more and more angry as her daughter disregards what she is saying. Finally, the narrator emphasizes to the reader how the relationship between Jing-mei and her mother deteriorates more and more as time
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
The Rebellious Daughter: Analyzing the Theme of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan explores the deep familial emotions between a mother and her daughter. Jing-Mei’s mother had left China to come to America after losing her family, and had been raising Jing-Mei in America with her second husband. Despite her mother’s grand hopes for Jing-Mei to become successful in America by becoming a child prodigy, Jing-Mei did not share the same opinions.
When her mother buys her a piano and insists that she become a prodigy, Jing-mei feels trapped and overwhelmed. Jing-mei states, “When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to hell” (Tan 225). This simile emphasizes the piano lessons as a negative force that invaded her everyday life. Similarly, when Jing-mei rebels against her mother's expectations and performs poorly at a talent show, she states, “And now I realized how many people were in the audience, the whole world it seemed. I was aware of eyes burning into my back” (Tan 229).
In conclusion, “ Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, was about Jing-mei and finding herself, even without her mothers help. Shirley Temple and Peter Pan were good moments in the story, but helped discover that just because they were happy moments, doesn’t mean that’s all a prodigy does. Jing –mei thought all the stuff her mom did help her, but it didn’t. It made her think about herself and her life. This is how Two Kinds of allusion affected Jing
Jing Mei is signed up to perform at a local talent show in front of her family, despite having no interest in playing the piano. Her performance of a piece ironically titled “Pleading Child”, as expected, doesn’t go well, which only makes Jing Mei and her mom’s perspectives of each other more negative. Ultimately fueled with hatred on Page 27-28, Jing Mei has a meltdown, thinking to herself, “My true self had finally emerged. So this was what had been inside of me all along.” Feeling both pressured and embarrassed by her family, especially her mom, Jing Mei, musically, feels powerless, and all of her might to be a prodigy disappears after her performance.
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 Civil Rights Movement in America during the 1950’s and 60’s is one of the clearest examples of the Romantic period in the modern era. The Civil Rights Movement highlights the traits of the Romantic period through corrupt civilizations, admiration for a man of action, and the artist being seen as a prophet. The Civil Rights Movement was a social movement to end racial segregation and discrimination in the south. The south was notorious for it's Jim Crow Laws and general white and racist communities.
One dynamic that false expectation strains is the relationship between Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei. In a vignette told from the perspective of the latter, Suyuan has the notion that Jing-Mei should be able to perform something at the level of a prodigy. She begins
Throughout the story, Jing-mei’s feeling toward her mother change in critical ways. As a young child, Jing-mei wants constant attention from her mother, going so far as agreeing to become a child prodigy. In the story, Jing-mei commented, “In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so” (Tan 221). This was before her mother becomes highly adamant about wanting her child to become a prodigy. As time went on, she wanted Jing-mei to become the epitome of a child star.
At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings
Thesis Statement: In the short story, Two Kinds, Amy Tan develops a narrator who as a child seeks her mother’s approval of her, but develops into a child with her own mind, and by the end of the story embodies a woman who realizes that her mother has her own expression of love for her daughter. Thus, Amy Tan depicts a message about Jing-Mei, the narrator, accepting that everyone, especially her mother, has their own expressions of love. This will look different depending on who a person is and their background. Even though Jing-Mei does not always feel her mother loves her, she learns that her mother loves her by reflecting on her childhood and struggles.
Her mother eventually forgives her for what she said in their argument and offers to send her the piano as a birthday gift. After her mother's death, Jing-mei accepts the piano. While looking through her mother's things, Jing-mei finds sheet music of the song she practiced for a talent show when she was a child. She sits down at the piano and plays the song, realizing that it wasn't as difficult as she perceived it to be when she was young. She then realizes that the two sheets of music, titled "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented," are two halves of the same song.
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.
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