The concluding scene of Two kinds consists of Jing-Mei Woo explaining to us how she was never able to gain the approval of her mother, and how she seemed to fail her often. The singer of "Perfect" by Simple Plan seems to go through the same scenario. Never able to satisfy his father regardless of how hard he tried, it seemed as if the father did not love him because of his imperfection. I connected this song with the short story because of the similarities in both the parents, and child's view point. You see this similar view point through the statements given by both. Jing-Mei states that "It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of …show more content…
expectations." So, it is shown in this statement that Jing-Mei doesn’t feel capable of accomplishing anything, so she puts forth no effort at all.
This causes her to utterly fail in life and gain the solemn disapproval of her mother. She is not alone in this state of life however. The singer of "Perfect" feels the same way and has gained the same pessimistic outlook on his life. He wonders if his dreams are worth pursuing at all, he shows us this when he sings, "Do you think I'm wasting my time doing things I want to do? But it hurts when you disapproved all along." They are both opposed to trying to accomplish any of their own goals when their parents never give them any positive reinforcement. However, it is not the case that the parents do not care for their children, but care too much. Because Jing-Mei's mother "Believed I could be
anything I wanted to be." So when Jing-Mei did not meet the high expectations of her mother, in her mother eyes she failed epically and the disappointment that followed shattered both the mother's and Jing-Mei's views of each other in a negative way. "So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable." The proof of this shattered point of view arises when the singer states "And now I try hard to make it I just want to make you proud, I'm never gonna be good enough for" Sadly, both the singer and Jing-Mei never overcome their feeling of failure, it lives on with them. "Nothing's gonna change the things that you said, and nothing's gonna make this right again", "All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unspeakable." They have both given up, so now they don’t even try. Therefore, they will never break free of their cage with bars made of their crippling past mistakes.
At first, Ji-li thought she was the luckiest girl in the world. She came from a very wealthy, loving, respected, and dependable family. In growing up in such was so was she too, “I was happy because I was able to excel and always expected to succeed. I was trusting, too. I never doubted what I was told…”(Jiang 1). The way Ji-li felt towards her family, proving that is the kind of family is everything Ji-li wanted. It is important for her, so then she can feel comfortable, then the family dynamics changed. Ji-li’s relationship has changed due to the Cultural Revolution, because when the change started to happen, she was okay. Ji-li then hated her family’s guts and background; near the end of the book. Ji-li feeling’s toward her family was unbreakable or even strengthened more than ever, and never went away. “… I would never do anything to hurt my family, and I would do everything I could do to take care of them. My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.” ( Jiang 262-263). The importance that she will never abounded her family even in the most difficult times in her life. The reason the change occurred was Ji-li knew she could change her name, but she will always be a Jiang. She could also never leave the best thing in her life. Ji-li had other problems in her life as well, besides her family, there were her friends. Well
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
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
One type of effect the Chinese mothers’ expectations has in their relationship with their “Americanized” daughter is negative since the mothers are unable to achieve anything. An-Mei Hsu expects her daughter to listen and obey as the young ones do in Chinese culture, but instead receives a rebellious and stubborn daughter, “‘You only have to listen to me.’ And I cried, ‘But Old Mr. Chou listens to you too.’ More than thirty years later, my mother was still trying to make me listen’” (186-187). Instead of the circumstances improving, the mother is never able to achieve anything; her forcing and pushing her daughter to the Chinese culture goes to a waste. They are both similar in this sense because both are stubborn; the daughter learns to be stubborn through American culture and wants to keep herself the way she is, whereas the mother wants to remove this teaching from American culture and does not give u...
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.
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...
“Only two kinds of daughters,” “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!”(476). When a mother pushes her daughter to hard, the daughter rebels, but realizes in the end that their mothers only wanted the best for them and had their best interest at heart. In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei eagerly hoped to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei.
...ies, she goes back to the piano and finds two songs. She begins to play “Pleading Child,” the song that caused the breaking point of her relationship with her mother. This song, with its fast and aggressive melody, best represents the mother’s aggressive attitude towards her daughter. Then Jing-mei plays the song next to “Pleading Child,” called “Perfectly Contented.” It turned out to be lighter and slower. It is a much happier song. Jing-mei’s determination to be herself, “Perfectly Contented,” corresponds with this song. “And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.” (499). Like the ying-yang and the songs, Jing-mei’s relationship with her mother may seem disastrous and apart, but together they share a strong bond that makes them whole. Even though the two disagree, like the songs, they form one beautiful song.
Throughout Southeast Flies the Peacocks we have observed how traditional Chinese beliefs revolve around human relationships. Despite Mother Jiao 's good intentions for her son she ends up making him feel isolated and unhappy. While Zhong and Lan would have been viewed as egotistical unfilial children just by wanting to be together simply because they did not focus on familial or societal duties. In the end we see that following your feelings or expressing your emotions would most likely leave you unable to fulfill your duties as a filial child.
...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.
She comprehends the similarities between the sisters by eyes. Finally, she has faced her lost sisters in a lifetime. Jing-Mie delights because they all see how similar they are to their mother. She forgives herself; they embrace one another and begin crying because her time is running out, unfortunately. On that day, all nervous is deserted behind, she enjoys fulfilling the last happy moment before coming back to
In "Two Kinds", Amy Tan uses the central conflict between Jing mei and her mother to develop the theme that parental pressure has a dynamic outcome on each child. "When we got on the bus to go home, my father was humming the busy bee tune and my mother kept silent"(paragraph 57). This quote shows that Jing Mei's parents are putting pressure on her. Thus, parents should make their children happy so they don't feel bad for them self. Once you teach them good stuff that they like at a young age they'll always be happy. "My mother had a very difficult childhood, having seen her own mother kill herself. So she didn't always know how to be the nurturing mother that we all expect we should have"(paragraph 30). This quote shows how Jing Mei's
She sees the opportunities that America has to offer, and does not want to see her daughter throw those opportunities away. She wants the best for her daughter, and does not want Jing-Mei to ever let go of something she wants because it is too hard to achieve. "America is where all my mother's hopes lay. . .There were so many ways for ... ...
Keyword, literately meaning they are the representative of the entire body of the certain knowledge to which they are related. Similarly, cultural keywords in a language are words which are significant in that language, and reflect the culture of the given language. (Wierzbicka 1997) This paper will focus on one of the Chinese keywords: “仁(ren)”, and argue the meaning and Chinese cultural perspective on “仁(ren)”. This is analysed in comparing the explanations and translations in related literature. Additionally, scholars agree with the fact that the interpretation of cultural keyword has become a major difficulty for outsiders to understand, because it has an inseparable