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American and European cultural differences
Description of amy tan's writing
American and European cultural differences
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In Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds,” we are shown how complicated relationships can be when one grows up in two different cultures. The story takes place in 1950s-60s San Francisco, California, where Jing-Mei, the narrator, grows up. San Francisco, and America in general is a place where the culture is very fluid and people are able to do what they want. Her mother, however, is born in China, a country, especially during the time she was living there, was not as fluid as America. It has an orderly culture in which you have to either be born into a wealthy family or marry into one because it is so hard to move up in society, unlike America.As we can see in the story, Jing-Mei and her mother do not have a good relationship because of these …show more content…
However, she does not practice her piece properly. Even though she is confident, her not practicing her piece well causes her to muddle up her performance in front of everyone she knows, as well as her mother ,who is once again disappointed in her. Since she messes up during the talent show, Jing-Mei believes that her mother will never bring up the piano lessons again. Especially because this was a public humiliation and her mother has a big ego. Nevertheless, she is wrong and she is now on the course of having one of the worst fights with her mother. Two days after the talent show, her mother comes in and tells Jing-Mei that it is time for her piano lessons. Jing-Mei is stubborn and pretends she does not hear her mother, but her mother continues to bother her and the argument escalates to the point where Jing-Mei says, “Then I wish I’d never been born...I wish I were dead,” and shocks her mother(1238). As a result of this, her mother stops bothering her and stops her ambitions. Although Jing-Mei should be happy with this, she continues to live with her mother’s disappointment and continues to fail her as she becomes an adult. As she continues to fail, she still believes that she cannot be anything she wants to be but herself and is still too scared to ask her mother “why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse… Why had she given up hope?”(1239). It is not until her mother dies that Jing-Mei realizes that, essentially, her mother is ambitious for the sake of her being perfectly content with her life. The only thing Jing-Mei’s mother ever wanted her to
Jing-mei 's mother wants Jing-mei to be a prodigy and get popular. Thus, the mother rents a piano for Jing-mei to help her achieve this. Many years later, Jing-mei finds the piano in a broken state, so she decides to have it repaired. She starts playing the song she used to play, “Pleading Child.” But to the right of “Pleading Child,” she finds a second song named “Perfectly Contented.” She starts to play both songs, “And after I [Jing-mei] had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.” (6) Jing-mei’s mother tells Jing-mei that there are two kinds of people: the respectful kind and the disrespectful kind. At that time, Jing-mei also finds out that there are two kinds of people inside her. She could choose to be the kind where the person is a prodigy and respectful, or be the kind that is ugly in the eyes of people. When she plays “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented,” Jing-mei realizes that her identity had changed completely because of her laziness and beliefs. Jing-mei learns that there are two kinds of people in the world, and she should choose the right
Woo cleans the house herself and no longer has a housekeeper. With the money she saved, she hired Mr. Chong, an ancient piano teacher, who can barely hear and whose eyes are too dulled to tell when Jing-mei messes up. He is so genuine that Jing-mei feels guilty and picks up the basic skills, but she is so bent on not pleasing her mother that she continues to purposefully lack in her efforts. She hates the piano. She hates the fact that her mother is shaping her identity. She hates that her mother forces it upon her. She hates that it's everything she isn’t: disciplined, elegant, and most of all controlled. Jing-mei wants to be who she wants to be, and with the piano around, she only continues to be who her mother wants her to be, but she can not tell her mother this. She is supposed to play a piece called “Pleading Child” which is a “simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was”. Even though she had not practiced and didn't know the piece, she played anyway. Halfway through, she began to realize how awful she was. The silence that followed her performance and her parent’s disappointed looks unfolded the undeniable truth, Jing-mei was not a piano
Jing-mei realizes her mother was trying to help her out, but since their personalities clash, Jing-mei first believed her mother was forcing her to play piano. She thought her mother was setting up unrealistic expectations for her, when only she just wanted to see her daughter live the American Dream. She didn’t understand the Chinese way of thinking so she thought her mother was just being strict. Her mother wants her to be a strong, independent American woman. She just wanted her daughter to have all the opportunities she wasn’t able to have in China.
“The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese. (179). In the story A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan, the protagonist character, Jing-mei, finds herself in several difficult situations due to how her social and cultural upbringing has shaped her. She finds herself pulled between her Chinese DNA and her American background. While she was raised being told that she was Chinese and “it’s in her blood”, she does not identify as such, because she grew up in America and only sees herself as an American. After her mother’s passing,
Chinese-Americans authors Amy Tan and Gish Jen have both grappled with the idea of mixed identity in America. For them, a generational problem develops over time, and cultural displacement occurs as family lines expand. While this is not the problem in and of itself, indeed, it is natural for current culture to gain foothold over distant culture, it serves as the backdrop for the disorientation that occurs between generations. In their novels, Tan and Jen pinpoint the cause of this unbalance in the active dismissal of Chinese mothers by their Chinese-American children.
Jing-Mei was forced to take piano lessons; this only further upset her as she felt that she was a constant disappointment. Her mother was mad at her on a regular basis because Jing-Mei stood up for herself and explained to her that she didn’t want to be a child prodigy.
In "Two Kinds," Jing-Mei struggles with the plans her mother forces on her and the path she wants to create for herself. She spends her entire childhood doing everything her mother makes her, so that she can become a prodigy. Her mother has her take tests, classes, and learn skills she does not want to just so she can be successful. As a result, Jing-Mei rebels by not paying attention during her studies or by not attempting the quizzes. She spends her entire childhood being mediocre to the point she does not really know how to try when she wants to. It takes her until her mother dies just to find closure. By that point she had not even been rebelling it was just forced into her character. Luis and Jing-Mei might have rebelled for different reasons, but the reasons for their parents to push them were incredibly similar.
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei was eagerly hoping to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei. The daily test began to aggravated Jing-mei because they made her feel less sma...
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
The idea of Jing-mei becoming someone is not far fetched though. The only thing she needs to have is perseverance. Many people in America have the opportunity to advance themselves in their field of work, but they do not push themselves toward their limits. Jing-mei had decided not to push herself. She was continually saying “ I won’t be what I’m not” (555). This is the attitude of many people today. They do not want to be changed. They just assume to assert their own will.
For many of us growing up, our mothers have been a part of who we are. They have been there when our world was falling apart, when we fell ill to the flu, and most importantly, the one to love us when we needed it the most. In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, it begins with a brief introduction to one mother’s interpretation of the American Dream. Losing her family in China, she now hopes to recapture part of her loss through her daughter. However, the young girl, Ni Kan, mimics her mother’s dreams and ultimately rebels against them.
In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara both protagonists have to make choices on how to live their lives in society. In “Two Kinds”, the subject matter are mothers who were born in China want their daughters born in America to follow their Chinese heritage and use American predictions to become successful. The story line is Jing Mei’s mother wants her to become a piano prodigy. Jing-Mei wants to live her own life and not let her mother have control over it. The historical background is when Chinese immigration began toward the end of the 19th century. The majority of Chinese immigrants came to San Francisco. In “The Lesson” the subject matter is wealth is not equally distributed in society. The story line is when Sylvia realizes the inequality that is happening in the world. Sylvia accepts it and isn’t sure where she stands in society. The historical background is during the 1950’ s-1960 the Civil Rights Movement was created to stop discrimination in the United States. In “Two Kinds” the mother and daughter relationship is unbalanced. The mother, Suyuan, believes Jing Mei can accomplish the American dream and become successful. In “The Lesson”, the story focuses on poverty and wealth in the world. Miss Moore wants Sylvia to fight against the inequalities and improve her status in life. An observation of the way Jing-Mei, the protagonist in “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, and Sylvia, the protagonist of “The Lesson” are both struggling to fit in society and wanting acceptance.
...ith Jing Mei and her mother, it is compounded by the fact that there are dual nationalities involved as well. Not only did the mother’s good intentions bring about failure and disappointment from Jing Mei, but rooted in her mother’s culture was the belief that children are to be obedient and give respect to their elders. "Only two kinds of daughters.....those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan1) is the comment made by her mother when Jing Mei refuses to continue with piano lessons. In the end, this story shows that not only is the mother-daughter relationship intricately complex but is made even more so with cultural and generational differences added to the mix.