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Analysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan

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“Two Kinds” a short story out of Amy Tan’s book “The Joy Luck Club” is a representation of the pressures immigrant children face from their parents. In the story, we follow a young girl named Jing-Mei as she embarks down the road to becoming a Prodigy. Her mother believed that “you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (Tan). For Jing-Mei that meant her mother believed she could become instantly famous. “Of course, you can be a prodigy, too”, her mother told her (Tan). For a nine-year-old who wants nothing more than to make her mother proud this was exciting. In the beginning, we can see her excitement and desire, “in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.” (Tan). However, as we follow the story we see her excitement quickly fade to sorrow and anger. The high expectations immigrant families place on their children is still a very relevant social issue and can be witnessed throughout the United States. In this short story, we witness how a parent’s good intentions can ultimately lead to the destruction of their child’s motivation. The road to prodigy all began when Jing-Mei’s mother desired her to be a “Chinese Shirley Temple” (Tan). After the countless movies watched and the failed trip to the beauty school, that dream came to an end as quickly as it had started. This however, opened the door to many more tests of trial and error. At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings

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