Amy Tan, an American writer, wrote “Two Kinds” in 1989. The story is about a Chinese woman who moved to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China. She lost her home, first husband, and twin baby girls. In “Two Kinds” there is a cultural issue between the mother and daughter. The mother grew up with a Chinese cultural background, while the daughter grew up with mostly an American cultural background.Amy Tan writes about the battle of cultures between a first-generation Chinese-American daughter, Jing-mei, and her mother, Suyan, a Chinese immigrant. People have different cultural backgrounds which are very special to them. Usually families’ tradition and thoughts are affected by their cultural backgrounds.In the story “Two Kinds” the relationship of the mother and …show more content…
In addition, she would complain “I’m not going to play anymore” like a pleading child (Tan 14). Jing-mei’s mother is controlling her and trying to make her a prodigy.
It soon becomes a clash of Chinese driven work ethic against American style individuality. Jing-mei’s rebellious spirit wins out the power struggle at the disappointment of her mother as she has failed as an influence.
For a while their relationship is uneasy until the mother reintroduces the piano to Jing-mei. The mother offers the piano to Jing-mei for her thirtieth birthday. It was an offer of forgiveness. The mother did not as a means of forcing it upon her. The mother said, “No, this is your piano, always your piano, you only one can play” (Tan 16).
The mother explains that she can still play the piano because it has become part of her, it is her identity. Jing realizes that her mother wanted to bring out Jing’s own identity all along in order for her to have her own success in the