She spanks Sophie as she tries to discipline her, and by the end of the story when Natalie and John find out, they ask her to move out of the house and her contact with Sophie is forbidden. In Two Kinds, the narrator Jing-mei is a young first generation American with a Chinese background. Her mother has a very utopian and positive view of America. She wants what is best for her daughter. Jing-mei resists her mother’s desire to make her a musical prodigy.
One of the key examples of external conflict in this story occurs when Jing-mei's mother scheduled piano lessons for Jing-mei without her consent. Jing-mei's mother decides she wants Jing-mei to try her hand at being a pianist so that she can be famed like the little Chinese girl on the Ed Sullivan Show. Jing-mei was upset when she heard this, she said, "When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to hell. "(Tan, 48) Jing-mei's reference to "hell" shows the antipathy against her mother's decision. Jing-mei wanted to be her own person so she was determined not to try hard at the piano lessons.
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior The article ”Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” focuses on the fact that chinese children are turning out to be so stereotypically successful. Amy Chua points out that there is a big difference between Chinese mothers and Western parents and the way they raise their kids: ”What Chinese parents understands is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up.” I think this quote makes a good picture of how she thinks of herself as a parent and the Western people as parents. To make her point clear she uses a lot of pathos and a lot of examples from experiences with herself and her two daughters, Louisa and Sofia.
Even though it is within the same culture, the film shows how Chinese immigrants are forced to “adjust” and give up much of their identity in order to thrive in America. Imagine moving to a foreign country and raising children who don’t speak your language, understand your history, believe your beliefs, or share your values. The Joy Luck Club opens with a short story about a Chinese woman who desires to move to America, believing her future daughters will be treated more fairly there than they would be in Chinese society. “Nobody will look down on her,” she says, “because I will make her speak only perfect American English.” In America, she hopes, her daughter can leave behind the
The setting also helps Jing-Mei to understand her mothers past life. Being out of her element causes her to see everything in a different point of view, and causes her to realize the pain and struggle her mom once went through. Through abandoning her newborn twins and escaping a treatorous war zone, being surrounded by the same environment has Jing-mei finally understanding what and why her mother had done such horrific things in her past. Being immersed in this Chinese culture allows Jing-mei to embrace her Chinese heritage as she could not before. It is apparent once she meets her half sisters that her mothers statement on having the culture
Her mother’s constant insults also do nothing to uplift her self-esteem, instead hinder her development of self-identity. Kingston lacks voice because the sexist nature of Chinese culture which actively suppresses the voices of young women. Kingston even states when she was a newborn her mother cut her tongue and “sliced up the frenulum” which is symbolic of Chinese culture stifling the voices of young women. Eventually young Kingston finds her voice and identity by using the minor characters as a template for behavior by mimicking their actions and adopting a similar mindset. By idolizing the great women warriors in Chinese stories such as Fa Mulan and Ts'ai Yen, Kingston embraces her identity as a Chinese American and finds her voice.
Juggling four children, cooking, cleaning and adjusting to a new society puts pressure on Alice’s mother. Since both mother and grandmother are such strong personalities, arguments between the two of them are not uncommon. They both attempt to entice information about one another out of young, unsuspecting Alice, so that they have something to use against each other during future conflicts. Alice describes their ways of deceit as, “Constantly sighing and lying and dying – that is what being a Chinese woman means, and I want nothing to do with it.” (-Part 1, page
RJ#6: Conflict Response to Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” In “Two Kinds” the narrator, an Americanized Chinese girl named Jing-mei, describes growing up with her strict and ambitious Chinese born mother. Since a very early age, Jing-mei’s mother relentlessly challenged her, first believing she could be a prodigy with beyond average intelligence, and then having her take lessons with the retired, deaf piano teacher Mr. Chong in exchange for housekeeping services. The constant disappointment from her mother caused Jing-mei to lash out in rebellion, and she began to purposefully fail at her piano lessons. When her mother had her perform at their church in a talent show, Jing-mei did poorly, embarrassing them both. To Jing-mei’s surprise, her mother still tried to force her to practice even after what had happened, so in her anger she told her mother she wished she was dead, just like the twin babies her mother had lost in China.
It isn’t until after her death that the whereabouts of the two sisters are discovered. Jing-mei now carriers the burden of having to meet her sisters without their mother, not knowing the reaction the sisters will have towards her. In the beginning of the story, Amy Tan illustrates the transformations of Jing-mei, and her father, while also creating a visual of China during a train ride from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. It isn’t until Jing-mei arrives in China, her mother’s words come back to haunt her “someday you will see, it is in your blood,
The family member that has chosen the slip of paper with the black dot on it has won the lottery, but the only thing that he or she has won is a cruel and unusual death by stoning. In this story Tessie Hutchinson is the one who wins the lottery. Tradition is an essential element t in any family or town. It sometimes seems as if tradition is the key factor that holds a community together, people bond over similarities such as a common tradition, but what if the very thing that is holding a community together is also destroying its people? Why would a community keep repeating the same mistake year after year and never think twice about why they were doing it in the first place?