Much of the Chinese values moved with them to America. In the movie Mulan, all the parents want for their daughter, Mulan, is to bring honor to the family. But Mulan is not your typical Chinese girl; she has her own opinions, and can’t hide who she really is. (Mulan) In the story “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei’s mother and father want her to be a prodigy in order to make a life for herself. At first Jing-mei liked the idea, but after all of her attempts and fails she wanted to live a normal American life.
Conflict in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds”, is a short story of a Chinese immigrant mother’s conflict with her daughter Jing-Mei. In this story, Jing-Mei tells of how she resisted her mother’s overbearing efforts to inspire her to reach her fullest potential twenty years ago. Jing Mei’s mother only wanted her daughter to be a prodigy in some way. So she dominated and controlled her daughter’s life. When these traits did not surface, Jing-Mei began to realize she did not have these traits and started to feel internally inferior.
Kingston’s story “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” employs numerous fantasy elements in depicting her separation from the restrictiveness of China and further, her discovery of harmony between her ancient family’s culture and her new American one. Navigating through confusion and anger, Kingston is ultimately able to remove herself her Chinese bindings and find a sense of accord between her past and her future. Kingston’s rhetoric conveys her struggle with the complexities of her Chinese culture and her inability to come to a core truth. Furthermore, she gravitates toward American culture for its simplicity. Kingston is having difficulties sorting fact from fiction in her mother’s story about Moon Orchid’s encounter with her husband.
The novel traces the psychological development of the American daughter and her final acceptance of the Chinese mother and what the Chinese mother stands for. It is interesting to note that when Jing-mei Woo is asked by her three “aunts” to go to China in order to fulfill her mother’s long-cherished wish to meet her lost twin babies, Jing-mei shocks and upsets
Two Kinds Every day somewhere in the world, a mother’s expectations for their daughter to succeed in life may come from what she has lost prior to her daughter being born. Amy Tan, the author of the short story “Two Kinds”, teaches a valuable lesson in a mother- daughter relationship. The mother a Chinese immigrant was determined her daughter; Jeing-Mei a first generation Chinese American was to become a prodigy. The theme of “Two Kinds” expresses how a mother’s dream for her daughter to be successful in America can turn a daughter away from her own identity. Jeing-Mei believes that America will give her the identity she wants without having to work for it.
Unlke Yunior, she did not grow up in another country. Her struggle deals with finding an identity as a Chinese- American. Unlike the Domincan culture, which seems to be outspoken and open, the Chinese seem to encourage silence and secrets. The novel begins with Kingston’s mother saying, “You must not tell anyone,” before sharing the story with her daughter. - Silence is encouraged in their culture, allowing Kingston to develop into a shy, awkward girl with trouble adjusting.
It is inside that she is like not any Chinese girl I ever see.” Her statement gives insight on how the granddaughter may pass through the veil with her exterior as Chinese but her interior passes for American, a dual identities within one person. Through-out the story the grandmother either assigns responsibly for the granddaughter’s behavior to either the Irish wild side or her prideful Chinese side. It is a wonder does Chinese grandmother see her granddaughter exclusively one race or comprised of both making a whole
Tan also uses“different English with her family (mother /husband) that she grew up with”. Amy Tan has provided us with many examples. Tan states on page 789 “As a case in point, a television station recently interviews my mother and I didn’t see it when it was aired, but my mother did. She was telling me what happened. She said that everything she said, which was in English, was subtitled in English, as if she had been speaking in pure Chinese.” But to her mother she saw nothing wrong with the way she talked and it was absurd for the Television station to make her sound as if she was an illiterate English speaker or speaking Chinese.
ENGL 110 Essay 1 Final Draft Yi Zhang Cultural and Generation Conflict “Two kinds” is a story about the conflict between a Chinese-American girl Jing Mei and her mother. They immigrated from China to the United State and when Jing Mei was a little girl, her mother tried to discover Jing Mei’s prodigy. At first Jing Mei is also curious about being a prodigy but finally she lose interest in it. The author Amy Tan develops her theme of cultural and generation conflict through the choice of an appropriate setting, the use of strong character development, and strong plot development including exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. The setting of the story establishes an appropriate background for the characters’ traits and leads to the exposition between two characters.
http://www.victorianweb.org/index.html The Women at English Literature Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Brontë) The role of Jane Eyre is an excellent example on the view and manners of women in the Victorian Period. She is resigned, but already have personal thoughts and pursues. She is a middle-class worker, with no actual family and no prospects, at the beginning, of improvement. But, because of her personality, she manages to transform her life in many ways. If she were a "kind" child, by the eyes of Mrs. Reed, she would never go to Lockwood school; she were able to grow up in terms of knowledge in the school, because she had the need of being liked by others and was strong enough to improve herself in many ways; she, by herself, took a chance when announcing to be a governess.