Student Question
In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds," who died before the story begins?
Quick answer:
In "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, Jing-mei's mother, Suyuan Woo, had lost her parents, husband, and twin baby daughters in China before the story begins, as she fled the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. While the story implies these people died, it is later revealed in other stories from The Joy Luck Club that the twin daughters did not die but were abandoned by Suyuan in hopes they would be found and cared for.
The story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan tells about Jing-mei and her mother's relationship, especially the mother's attempt to make Jing-mei into a prodigy and Jing-mei's refusal to cooperate. The story begins with some background about Jing-mei's mother, who isn't named in this story, but who is known as Suyuan Woo in other stories from The Joy Luck Club. The prologue to the story explains that Suyuan had come to America in 1949, escaping the Chinese Communist Revolution. Tan writes that Suyuan had lost "everything in China," including Suyuan's parents, her husband, and "two daughters, twin baby girls." Although the euphemism "losing" implies these people all died in China, there is no proof in the story that that is the case. The fact that Jing-mei's father is mentioned in the story indicates Suyuan remarried, probably meaning she was a widow. Later in the story, Jing-mei lashes out at her mother and says she wishes she were dead "like them," that is, like "the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about." Although readers don't learn it in this story, the twin girls did not die. The mother abandoned them, hoping they would be found and cared for by someone else.
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