Amy Tan's Two Kinds

In Amy Tan's short story Two Kinds, Jing-mei, the American born daughter of Chinese immigrants, tells how her mother relentlessly drove her to become a child prodigy. The fun part of the story is that her mother pushes in all kinds of directions while searching for a natural talent that she seems certain must be lying dormant in her little girl. Although unsuccessful in finding some hidden talent, her mother settles on piano lessons and hopes that perhaps, with practice, the prodigy can come out. However, after spending her time ideally and refusing to do what she is told by her deaf piano teacher soon, recital day comes. Trapped in not knowing what to do, she goes along with the show, hoping and praying naively that a miracle will deliver magic into her fingers with the pressure of an audience.

No magic comes and she completely embarrasses her family. The battle between Jing-mei and her mother's expectations rages on after this recital, coming to a verbal battle in which Jing-mei devastates her mother's heart by saying--completely out of frustration and embarrassment--that she wishes she was not her daughter. With this blow, the mother closes the lid to the piano, stops the lessons, and admits that her daughter could be a failure. This is a hollow victory of course for the main character. As the short story ends, we see the girl returning, now thirty, and having the piano serviced. Her mother has passed away and she has decided to keep the piano as a memento of her mother's hopes for her.

If I could name one thing I enjoyed about this story.. it would be the message behind the mother and daughter relationship. In the end we see that the main character regrets not trying her best, and that she has taken her mother for granted in her life. A strong message like this makes us reflect on our own lives and relationships with the ones we love. However, one thing I did not like about this story was the way the mother was determined to find the child's prodigy. In my opinion, it should be the child's decision in what she would like to pursue for the future and not the mothers. I also think that if it was left up to the daughter to make her own decisions in her life they might have actually been successful in finding her true passion.

I believe this story could be seen in a

In conclusion, I felt that the elements in this story, and the way the author has combined them, build