“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan 1. Theme: Children carry the burden of parent’s expectations when they grow up and face emotional trials to create an identity. Parent’s expectations: We see this form of imposition placed on the main character by her mother who constantly tells her to ‘ni kan’ or look here to try to be exceptional or a prodigy. In page 1039 we see the first mention of this in the first line “‘Of course, you can be prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine. ‘You can be best anything’” This could be seen as healthy encouragement from mother to child to become the best she could be, and perhaps that was the mother’s intentions with the pressure and lessons she gave her.
When she moved away from China, Jing-Mei’s mother had a vision that in America, you could be anything that you wanted to be. She especially wanted her daughter to be a prodigy. When Jing-Mei’s mother says, “Of course you can be prodigy too”, and insists that she train and work towards being this, it shows the way her mother controlled Jing-Mei’s decisions and life (305). To ensure that Jing-Mei became a prodigy, her mother controlled her daughter by setting her to do many difficult tasks such as memorizing the bible and the capital of states (306). Her mother also gave Jing-Mei many tests such as multiplying numbers in her head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, and predicting daily temperatures (306).
Now that’s growing up without a childhood. Jane Smiley seems like a great parent who cares about her children but to allow her daughters to put on makeup even entering their teenage years just isn’t right. Her girls where prematurely growing up, where behaving beyond their age, and with their only priority being beautiful at all times it seem to help them in the long run. As they burned off the “Barbie stage” and grew into more important things down their lives. Like for example Smiley talks about her older daughter, “Now she is planning to graduate school and law school and become an expert on woman’s health issues, perhaps adolescent health issues like anorexia and bulimia” (377).
Alvarez essay explains how her parents and media taught Alvarez self-worth. Alvarez’s explains how she grew up and learned to love herself. “As a young teenager in our new country, my sisters and I searched for clues on how to look as if we belonged here (Alvarez 92). Young girl sometimes find themselves trying to be like people they see on T.V. so that they can fit into the world.
However, I think the lack of females in advanced science and math classes has no definitive reason. Researchers constantly develop theories to try to pinpoint the exact reason girls drop advanced math and science classes. Some of these theories state boys do better in math and science because of genetics. Others say that girls have emotional issues that disallow them to achieve in math. Whatever the reason, parents need to start focusing on their daughters’ involvement in advanced science and math classes.
Alice's parents tell her who she is permitted to see. They also instruct her how to dress, and of course how not to. It is through experiences such as Alice's younger sister falling off the bed, under her watch, that Alice's parents have a crucial influence on her self-discovery. Specifically, Alice's relatives influence her self-discovery journey by not being supportive. As Alice had to grow up basically looking after her self and her younger siblings she learned that even if you do not have support you still need to follow your dreams and live you life.
She argues that as a mother she even wants to hide these types of details from her 9 years old daughter but as a teacher she feels it necessary to tell the children that they can face these kinds of things may be many times in the future. The author is right when she says that the children should be aware of these tragedies but I disagree with
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is a short story about a girl whose mother pushes her to become a genius, while the girl fights her wishes at every turn. The mother’s largest and final endeavor is for her daughter to learn how to play the piano and become a prodigy. From the subsequent events come heavy dispute between the two as we get a deeper look into the mother-daughter relationship they share. The author writes in such a way that leaves the interpretation and the judgment of the characters and the situation entirely up to the reader, not by leaving out detail, rather giving enough detail to show neither character as entirely in the wrong. Neither is shown to be without flaw, in a quite true-to-life scenario.
She wants things to get better. Having this mentality in her mind, the mother eventually gets portrayed as an antagonist. The mother pushes Jing Mei into trying different kinds of talents. She believes “you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (362). However, Jing Mei, the protagonist in the story, does not want to follow her mother’s hope and desire.
First the infant bonds with its mother. It’s during this time it learns to start development of emotions. Erickson’s “Eight Stages of Development” contends that if children don’t have their basic needs for security met early in life, they can become distrustful and fearful. A baby develops a bond of security and trust during the first two years of life, called the nurturing stage. Emotional development should be the most important thing we do for the child.