The Conflicts Between Mother and Daughter in “Two Kinds”

Zheng Wang ENC 1102 RXB3 Final draft The Conflicts between Mother and Daughter in â€Å"Two Kinds† In the story â€Å"Two Kinds†, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese†¦show more content†¦This is also one of the characteristics of Chinese culture, unfortunately Jing-mei cannot understand it, because she is born and raised under a completely different cultural background. Another aspect of cultural conflict is that humility and obedient are considered as the traditional virtues of the Chinese culture. Children should unconditionally obey their parents because parents have the ability and willingness to teach and control their children. For example, according to Jing-mei’s mother, Jing-mei has to practice piano assiduously. She would not be punished if she devotes all her effort to playing piano. We can clearly see this point in her mother’s word in the quarrel, â€Å"Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter† (461). But Jing-mei cannot understand this, because she is not familiar to Chinese culture. As a consequence of Jing-mei cannot understand her mother, she does not cooperate and has rebellious attitude against her mother. In the story, Jing-mei decided, â€Å"I didn’t have to do what my mother said anymor e. I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China. I had listened to her before and look what happened. She was the stupid one† (460). As described above, Jing-mei cannot understand the humility and obedient of Chinese culture, even they are recognized as theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1190 Words   |  5 PagesA Mother and Her Daughter In Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† (1989), a section of her novel â€Å"The Joy Luck Club†, Tan depicts the mother-daughter relationship between June and her mother, Ms. Woo. Ms. Woo is determined to turn June into a child prodigy, forcing her to try different activities to see if she would be a prodigy in that field. Ms. Woo then forces June to take piano lessons, and to her content June continues to play the piano with lessons from Mr. Chong. When it comes time for June to perform inRead MoreMedia: The Second God Essay946 Words   |  4 Pagespowerful social influence that can be good and bad. 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