An Interpretive Essay: "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan Turning through pages of
stories the words within them appear to be dimensionless and static. As one
begins reading, a discovery of a spirited journey is made. In the story,
"Two Kinds" written by Amy Tan a crucial component she created was the
narrator. The narrative voice develops the tone, symbolism, language, and
characters in the story which make the story come alive in your thoughts.
Jing-Mei is the narrator who is a daughter of a Chinese immigrant. As the story
advances, her journey of struggle through the relationship with her overbearing
mother is unraveled. Instantly there is a closeness felt with Jing-Mei. This is
because of the part she plays as a protagonist. You can understand what she is
going through because she is portraying a storyteller. She is a first person
narrator who helps you see out of the eyes of a young Chinese American girl. The
way in which she addresses herself with the pronoun I and her mother as she show
that the words and thoughts are a part of her. As Jing-Mei speaks about a time
in her childhood when her mother pushed her to become a prodigy, there are
recognizable immature qualities she possessed. She was highly imaginative and
satisfied with the ongoing process to become perfect. The words she used were
highly vibrant images. She fantasizes of being "like the Christ child
lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity." Her hope is to
be perfect, not for the reward of fame, but for the love of her parents. She
wanted to make them happy and please them. This is something that almost all
children want to do. As Jing-Mei wished more and more to be this type of super
kid rebellion was inevitable. This was also a trait borne out of her
childishness. While her mother wanted to create a genius, she wanted to demolish
her dream. This change of heart occurred after numerous tests her mother had
given her to memorize bible passages and world capitals. Each time she was wrong
and faltered in remembering there were continued looks of disappointment from
her mother. By this time she stopped fantasizing about being something special.
She desired independence from her mother and resists the high standards her
mother has set for her. Jing-Mei thought, "I won’t let her change me, I
promised myself." Moreover she rejects the hope of being the child prodigy.
With a child’s perspective we can be given the truth. Jing-Mei has an honest
view of the world, so we can trust what she is feeling. Her reactions and
emotions are blunt. During the showdown after the talent show fiasco she
protested that she was not going to anymore piano lessons. She exchanged heated
words with her mother. After knowing her mother had lost her twin daughters she
said the meanest thing she could. Jing-Mei shouted, "I wish I were dead!
Like them." Her words displayed every ounce of strength and anger she had.
The dialogue exchanged between her and her mother are sound very realistic, so
trust has been established with the reader and the narrator. Jing-Mei’s mother
has jumbled up English words with some Chinese words. This alternation of mostly
choppy English and her cultural dialect makes her mother sound like an authentic
Chinese mother. She called her daughter "ni kan" and commented that
Auntie Lindo’s "daughter, she is only best tricky." Jing-Mei’s
words are also not too simple, but not complicated either. You can sympathize
with her situation and the choosing of her passionate words. She sobbed and said
during an argument, "I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to
be!" This exhibited how strongly she felt about expressing herself. During
most of the story the tone is set by the anger and disappointment. This is
characterized by the daughter feeling that she was never acceptable to her
mother. She asked, "Why don’t you like me the way I am?" The only
way she could handle her mother’s expectations was to always succumb to
defeat. By the end of the story the tone takes a different turn. In addition,
the voice has matured from a girl into a woman. Jing-Mei’s mother offers the
piano that they had fought over as a peace offering. Jing-Mei always thought
that throughout her life even after the piano fight she had failed her mother by
dropping out of college and not getting straight A’s. Finally, she found that
her mother never lost any hope for her no matter how many times she failed. Her
mother still dreamed that she could be a prodigy if she wanted to. It was all up
to her. After all, her "mother believed you could be anything you wanted to
be in America." The two tones depicted all through the story can be tied to
Jing-Mei’s ending thought. The piano piece she had struggled to play at the
talent show was entitled "Pleading Child" and was a very slow and
difficult song. She saw that on the next page was a song called "Perfectly
Contented" which was quick and happy. These were two halves of the same
song. This can be compared to her life. During her childhood and part of her
adulthood she had felt dissatisfied with her life and with the choices she had
made. After she was offered the piano and even after her mother died she had
found inner peace. She had reconciled the issues of her failures and knew that
her mother never considered them failures. The two songs demonstrated how she
had experienced two parts of her life. Amy Tan’s utilization of Jing-Mei
affected all the intricate pieces of the story. She showed that the voice of a
character and narrator can develop a bond between the reader and the story.
Jing-Mei’s narration brought a comprehension to ideas and various emotions.
Without her the story could not have imprinted any heartfelt lessons.