Discussion Topic

Mother's Transformation and Lessons in "Two Kinds"

Summary:

In "Two Kinds," the mother's behavior transitions from hopeful ambition to resignation. Initially, she fervently pushes Jing-mei to discover a talent, inspired by American ideals of limitless potential. However, as Jing-mei resists, defining herself in opposition to her mother's dreams, the mother becomes increasingly desperate and ultimately disillusioned after a failed piano performance. She learns a harsh truth: she cannot impose her dreams on her daughter, and her past struggles in China still influence her desires for Jing-mei.

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How does the mother's behavior change in "Two Kinds"?

In Two Kinds, Jing-mei's mother takes on a very dynamic change. From her earliest memory, Jing-mei remembers that her mother had a very vested interest in seeing her child have any sort of amazing talent. She would often watch Shirley Temple and ask Jing-mei to carefully observe her facial expressions. Jing-mei remembers feeling excitement at the beginning of all of this, imagining that she had some sort of grand destiny. As Jing-mei begins to grow, however, we see her mother becoming more and more desperate to coax any sort of talent out of Jing-mei, going as far as to test her on the subjects of talents found in magazines.

This leads to an understandable frustration in Jing-mei. She begins to form her identity around her defiance of her mother. Slowly, she watches the determination go out of her mother as the latter becomes more and more disappointed. On the...

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outside, however, it appears that her mother is still bragging to friends about her daughter's imaginary talent. Finally, after Jing-mei botches a piano performance, her mother seems to simply lose hope. Jing-mei continually thinks that she's going to be yelled at after the performance, but her mother simply stays quiet. Finally, after attempting to send Jing-mei back to piano practice as though nothing happened, her mother seems completely defeated when Jing-mei exclaims that she wishes she hadn't been born.

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What does the mother learn in "Two Kinds"?

In my mind, the daughter is the one who probably learns more than the mother.  Yet, the mother does learn some rather harsh truths about herself and her daughter.  The most obvious lesson learned is that she is unable to compel her daughter to live out her own dreams.  Jing- Mei is miserable in learning the piano, but the mother believes in the notion of "being anything you want in America."  She forces this vision on her daughter through piano lessons.  When Jing- Mei says what she does out of anger, the mother stops forcing the lessons and the piano goes away.  She learns that she cannot "make" her daughter accept her own dreams.  Part of this is because she learns much about herself.  The mother's own brutal past in China helps her to embrace so eagerly the notion of self definition in American dreams.  This is almost a flight from her own pain- ridden past and through Jing- Mei's rejection, the mother learns that she is unable to run away from her own past, which follows her like a shadow even though she has left it physically.

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