Two kinds by Amy Tan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two kinds by Amy Tan - Essay Example She struggles to mould her daughter into fame but her efforts fail as her daughter is rebellious and lacks interest in her mother’s initiatives. The narrator however believes that she can only be her personality and not her mother’s dreams (Tan 132- 143). The narrator and her mother have a strained relationship that exists in two scopes, maternal and mentorship scopes, and identifies their conflict. The narrator’s mother plays her parental role of establishing a basis for her child’s future but the narrator does not appreciate her mother’s efforts. She instead believes that she can only be herself and is rebellious to her mother’s initiatives. At the peak of their conflict, her mother hints to the possibility of a worse interpersonal relationship when she explains that there are â€Å"only two kinds of daughters,† â€Å"those who are obedient and those who follow their mind† (Tan 142). She then declares that Jing, the narrator, can only live in the house if she is obedient and Jing regrets, in her mother’s face, being her daughter. The narrator’s strained relationship with her mother is further identifiable in her domestic orientation in which she does not help her parents when called upon to do domestic chores, a behavior that her mother identifies as a problem (Tan 132- 143). The narrator also identifies a poor relationship with her mother in the mentorship role. She does not appreciate her mother’s ideas and even though she communicates her feelings and attitudes, her mother ignores these and insists that Jing must follow her path to success. This generates a conflict that the two characters fail to resolve amicably (Tan 142). The strained relationship between the narrator and her mother develops from the mother’s high expectations in her daughter and her desire that the child attain fame. The mother’s strong belief that all achievements are