Opportunities in America

Opportunities in America

Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” is a story based on the account of a young Chinese girl living in the United States with her overly pushy mother. Two kinds is about opportunity, perseverance, and accomplishment. These are the things Jing-mei learns as she grows up in what many people call “The Land of Opportunity”.

In America, it is believed that you have the opportunity to become anything you would like to be. For immigrants it is believed that “you can be best anything” (553). It is the same for the mother in this story. She believes that her daughter, Jing-mei, can be anything she wishes, even a prodigy. Though this idea of Jing-mei becoming a prodigy sounds far fetched, the mother is determined to turn her daughter into something, or someone who will make the family proud.

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.

Many people, in the end, come to realize that with perseverance comes accomplishment. Sometimes that is enough to get them on the right track. It took Jing-mei a lot of time to really experience the realm of accomplishment.

It wasn’t until after she failed so many times that she realized she must persevere to become something in life. Jing-mei finally felt the realm of accomplishment when she realized that the piano lessons her mother forced upon her so many years ago had actually stayed with her through all the years. She was surprised to find “how easily the notes came back” (562). She now understood why it was so important to her mother for her to succeed. The mother did not want all of the glory for herself. She wanted Jing-mei to experience some of it. She wanted her to be happy.

Jing-mei discovered the wonderful world of opportunity, the need for perseverance and the glory of accomplishment when she sat down at the piano and played the song she had failed to play so many years ago.