The Conflicts Between Mother and Daughter in “Two Kinds”

Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

Jing-Mei's mother moved to the United States from China, but she still identifies herself as Chinese, and tries to stick to Chinese traditions and lifestyles in the new country. For her mother question of self-identity is simple, she is Chinese, she lives in the Chinese community, so she does not have to adjust to the American lifestyle. The majority of the information she gets about the American culture comes from the TV shows and magazines she brings from work. Since this is the only source of information for her, she is not able to critically evaluate the information she receives from media. Things are not that simple for her daughter Jing-Mei. She was born in the United States, she goes to the American school, but at the same time she

Another conflict that arises from Confucianism is when Jing-mei was told to go back to China and tell her half-sisters about their mother. She said “‘what will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything.’” (Tan 31). In Confucianism, very little of tradition is explicitly told from mothers to daughters in the form of text. Ritual actions are supposed to be observed, absorbed and understood in order to be preserved and handed down for posterity. But Jing-mei, who grew up in America, did not have a sense of following the tradition her mother brought to America, or rather considered the Chinese tradition to be eccentric.

Also, their relationship is shaped by the pressure Suyuan puts on her daughter. When Jing-Mei was growing up, her mother had the need for her daughter to be smart, talented, and a respectful Chinese daughter. This pressure put on Jing-Mei resulted in misunderstanding between mother and daughter. Jing-Mei constantly believed, “that she was disappointing her mother,” because she felt as if she failed at everything her mother wanted her to do. She believed she could never be as perfect as her mother was. Therefore she doesn’t think she is worthy enough to take her mother’s place at the Joy Luck Club “They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place” (Tan, 27). Jing-Mei does not understand that her mother wanted the best for her; Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to challenge herself because that is how one builds up character. Suyuan thinks her daughter could do anything she proposed to do but never put enough effort into anything “Lazy to rise to expectations” (Tan 31). Furthermore, Suyuan forced Jing-Mei to learn how to play the piano and then perform at a recital. Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother and refused to learn how to play the piano well. So, at the recital she ends up forgetting the music notes. Jing-Mei blames her embarrassment on her mother and states,

In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American,

Jing-Mei did not believe in herself as much as her mother did. In the text, it states, “It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her many times.” This quote shows how the differences between the viewpoints of Jing-Mei and her mother caused them to more and more separate from each other. Because of the viewpoint of Jing-Mei’s mother, Jing-Mei stopped believing in herself and started to fail everything.

“Two Kinds” is a short story written by Amy Tan about a young girl attempting to please her mother, but also cultivate her own identity. Ironically, (or most likely intentionally), there seem to be two different types of themes driving the text: the cultural differences between an immigrant and a natural born citizen of America, and a mother and daughter. The mother is an immigrant from China that believes in the American dream; she believes that anyone can make it in American with enough hard work and practice. However, her daughter was raised in American and does not have the same ideology as her mother. Instead, she believes that people should have their own identity and thoughts, rather than trying to be like someone else or impress other people. Her mother refuses to think in such a way, and instead attempts to make the daughter into a child prodigy. Unfortunately, the daughter gives up trying to please her mother, and instead begins to live her own life, to the disappoint of her mother.

In the article,” Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," author Amy Chua describes how parenting is approached in Chinese culture as compared to "Western parents." She compares Western and Chinese parents on how they approach their children’s' upbringings. She gives examples from her experiences raising her own daughters. Chua's daughters were not allowed to attend sleepovers and could not score grades any lower than an "A" in school classes. Chua also forced her kids in learning a piece for the piano. In separate story, author Amy Tan discusses the mother-daughter relationship in Chinese-American culture in "Two Kinds." This story is told from the viewpoint of an American-born Chinese girl named Jing-mei. Her immigrant mother, Mrs. Woo, believes that being in America is freedom and wants her daughter to take advantage of that freedom. Her mother has her try several activities in an attempt to

Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).

In the Novel excerpt “Two Kinds,” the mother believes that her daughter should obey her mother because she said ‘“Only two kinds of daughters” she shouted in chinese. “ those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house! Obedient daughter!”’ This states that the mother was raised in a perspective that daughters can only be obedient where as Jing-mei believes that she can do whatever she wants to do. The two generations don’t see eye to eye because their generation’s viewed culture differently.

The biographical connection that the author “Amy Tan” draws in her short story “Two Kinds” with her main character Jing-mei, crosses in more than one side. First of all, they both are Chinese American whose struggle in their identities with their Chinese immigrant mothers. “Due to a cultural conflict and lack of proper understanding of each other’s perceptions” (Priya 1), and as a big gap developed between the two daughters and their two mothers, in which resulted a complex relationship between them.

Jing Mei was born as an American not feeling like Chinese but her mother always looked for an occasion or a moment to remember where she came from “Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese.”(Tan,3) In addition, Jing Mei always try to have Chinese friends to feel a little more Chinese but she could not feel it even going to China Town. When his mother dies a letter arrives saying that her lost sisters had appeared, Jing Mei always knew about them. After this she decided to make the trip in search of them and to fulfill her mom’s dream of finding

I believe that Jing-mei didn’t realize until then how much her mother cared about her like I hadn’t until I also had picked up an old piano piece and started playing about a year later after the incident. Then did I realize that my mom didn’t want me to have the childhood she had, coming from a poor family of twelve. Both of our mothers wanted us to be successful and be able to build wonderful

As Jing Mei grew older, she then realized all of the pain she caused her mother about mentioning her mother’s babies back in China and matured to realize how childish and unnecessary her comment was. Jing Mei could have done anything with her knowledge, she just did not use her comprehension to her advantage.