Jing Mei And Conflicting Values

4 Pages 929 Words

Every parent has goals that he or she wishes for their child to achieve. Often times, the parent will push the child hard enough that they will rebel, as Jing-Mei does in the short story “Two Kinds”. “ The story, “Two Kinds” set in California and written by author Amy Tan, portrays the situation between a young girl, Jing-Mei, whose mother makes numerous attempts for her daughter to become a “prodigy” (211).
Throughout the story, Jing-Mei’s mother pushes her to become something she is not, obviously not realizing the grief Jing-Mei endures. In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the author considers the themes of opposing values and mother-daughter relationships, by her use of the title, the characters that act out the events, and the story’s plot and various conflicts.

The title “Two Kinds” fits the story suitably in that both Jing-Mei and her mother differ in their ways of thinking and who they are. At the commencement of the story, the author depicts Jing-Mei’s mother as being a typical parent, wanting the best for her daughter. Jing-Mei’s mother wants her daughter to do as she says, while Jing-Mei wants to be her own person. The story makes it clear that Jing-Mei does not appreciate her mother’s constant attempts to make her daughter the America dream child. Their different beliefs cause them to argue more, displaying the conflicts among mother-daughter relationships. In the middle of the story, Jing-Mei’s mother states that “there are only two kinds of daughters” (217) are another reason for the title. “Two Kinds” also conveys Jing-Mei’s discovery that the two pieces of piano music were once two pieces, but now are a complete piece. At the end of the story Jing-Mei states, “And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called “Perfectly Contented.” And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the s...