Student Question
How does "Two Kinds" represent the concept of transformation?
Quick answer:
The story represents the idea of transformation or change in the main character, Jing-Mei. First, Jing-Mei welcomes her mother’s dreams for her to become a child prodigy. Then, Jing-Mei resists her mother’s pressure and rebels against it. Finally, as an adult, Jing-Mei has a more balanced view of her mother’s pressure, illustrating a complete transformation.
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is a short story about a young girl named Jing-Mei and her mother. Jing-Mei’s mother, immigrated from China, has high hopes for what her daughter can achieve in the United States. At first, Jing-Mei is excited about seeking success and pleasing her mother.
Jing-Mei’s mother pressures her daughter to pursue one hobby after another, searching for a talent that can surpass other children’s abilities. For example, she tries to encourage Jing-Mei to become a singer and dancer like Shirley Temple. She tries to get Jing-Mei to memorize the capitals of US states and countries around the world. Many of these efforts fail, and Jing-Mei begins to resent her mother and resist her encouragement.
Jing-Mei’s mother finally arranges piano lessons for her daughter, and Jing-Mei does not apply herself to learning:
I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become...
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a good pianist at the young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different...
But her mother was not aware of this until Jing-Mei played terribly in a talent show. After that, Jing-Mei tried to quit piano lessons and resorted to hurting her mother’s feelings more deeply than ever before:
"I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!" […]
"Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!"
"Then I wish I weren't your daughter, I wish you weren't my mother," I shouted. […]
"Too late to change this," my mother said shrilly.
And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I wanted see it spill over. And that's when I remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. "Then I wish I'd never been born!" I shouted. “I wish I were dead! Like them."
This represents the first transformation of Jing-Mei, from a more obedient daughter to a rebellious one. But Jing-Mei transforms again at the end of the story, when, as an adult, she reflects on her mother’s pressure. She realizes her mother believed in her more than she believed in herself. She realizes that she did not have to resort to such extreme rebellion in order to assert herself as an individual. Instead, she should have appreciated her mother’s interest and involvement.