East Meets the West in Two Kinds by Amy Tan

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Recommended: Comparing and contrasting immigration

Amy Tan‘s ―Two Kinds‖ is a tale of a young Chinese girl‘s life as an adolescent and the

influence that her mother has on her growing up. Coming from a first-generation immigrant

Korean family, I can‘t help but completely relate to growing up around that type of ―support.‖

Although my parents were fairly westernized in their way of thinking, we had an aunt living with

us whom we affectionately called the Tiger Aunt growing up. Having no natural children of her

own, she treated my siblings and me as if we were her own children and pretty much had free

rein to direct us and help to raise us in any way that she wanted, which was with a very

traditional and old fashioned perspective. Tan‘s use of dialogue, symbolism, and the description

of the mother‘s thoughts and behaviors all take me back many years ago to when I was an

adolescent growing up around my aunt and the way that I‘m able to completely relate to the

narrator‘s point of view. I find these similarities to be amazing.

In ―Two Kinds,‖ the dialogue that is used by the narrator‘s mother is one of the biggest

things that remind me of my Tiger Aunt. Aside from the broken English that is used, one

similarity between my aunt and the narrator‘s mother is the tough love approach that they take to

parenting. Just as the narrator‘s mother says ―Not the best. Because you not trying‖ (Tan 28),

my aunt had a way of emphasizing my weaknesses in an effort to bring out my strengths. This

made me turn spiteful towards my aunt, and I paid no regard to any suggestions that she made or

things that she was genuinely trying to teach me. The narrator‘s mother sums up my aunt‘s

attitude towards how I was acting during my many moments of rebellion in two words: ―So

ungrateful‖ (Tan 34). My aunt also had a way of comparing my siblings and me with her

friends‘ kids, and it was as if an unspoken competition was taking place to see whose children

would come out on top with their accolades and accomplishments. This was a part of life that

the narrator had to deal with as well as her mother constantly made declarations about her

daughter that weren‘t necessarily true, like when she proclaims that ―If we ask Jing-mei to wash

dish, she hear nothing but music.

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