Amy Tan: Two Kinds

We had to read Amy Tan’s Two Kinds short story for our English course, and now I will answer some questions about it.

1. How does Amy Tan represent the mother’s dialect of English?
I find the mother’s dialect as a very stereotypical Asian way of speaking English. Very understandable but far from good. For example she quotes the mother “Play note right!” or “Not best, because you not trying.”

2. What motivates Jing-Mei to try to become the prodigy her mother wants?
Jing-Mei is trying hard to be the prodigy because she feels like her mother doesn’t accept her for who she is so she tries to be something better.

3. How would you describe the character of the mother?
Jing-Mei’s mother was very strict and sometimes even mean. She wanted her child to be something great so badly that she never stopped for a second to hear what Jing-Mei thought about the ideas.

4. The narrator speaks as one who looks back on her childhood. She now realizes that she could have become a good pianist. What does she indicate about why she was lazy in her practice habits as a child?
In the end of the story the narrator says she could have become a good pianist, but I think she was a bit rebellious as a child because her mother always pushed her to be the best so she didn’t want to be the best. If she would’ve had the choice to herself I think she would be a good pianist and actually enjoyed playing.

5. What is ironic about Jing-Mei’s daydreams?
The fact that she dreamed of being perfect and that her parents would love and adore her. The irony is that her mother always wanted that for her too but with all the pressure to be perfect Jing-Mei didn’t want it anymore.

6. How do JIng-Mei’s expectations differ from before her performance and after?
When she went on stage she was full of confidence and excitement and thought that she could actually do this, be a prodigy. But when she hit the first wrong note all of it collapsed and she was filled with shame and nervousness which led to more wrong notes.

7. What do you think of Jing-Mei’s interpretation of her parents’ reasons for sitting through the rest of the show? What about hers?
Jing-Mei thought that her parents didn’t move from their chairs because of their pride. It would’ve been too embarrassing to leave in the middle of the show and admit that their child played terribly. Jing-Mei was anchored to hers because she was too ashamed to leave.


8. How is the mother-daughter conflict resolved?
After the bad concert Jing-Mei thinks she never has to play again but her mother has different ideas, Jing-Mei starts to scream and shout saying she’ll never play the piano again. They never talk about it again and Jing-Mei stopped playing the piano. Years later her mother offers her the piano and she refuses to take it but sees it as an apology for everything. I don’t think they ever really resolved their issues just made them a little bit better.

9. What does Jing-Mei imply in the last sentence?
In the last sentence she realizes that the two songs Pleading Child and Perfectly Contented were the two halves of the same song. Maybe in that she implies. that she and her mother are the two halves of that same song, just different sides. and that those halves have caused her to become a strong and independent woman.

+10 The writer Amy Tan  is an American writer with Chinese parents. Her works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, has been translated into 35 languages.