Analyze of Two Kinds by Amy Tan - Essay Example

There are many characters throughout the story, but the main focus of the story is about the relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother. By presenting the story like this, Amy Tan is able to divulge in how each character reacts to the other one. This would simply not be possibly if the focus was on a wider range of characters. Some of the other support characters are Lindo Jong (Jing-Mei’s aunt), Waverly Jong (Jing-Mei’s cousin), and Mr. Chong (Jing-Mei’s piano teacher). All of these characters are crucial to the story because they provide background to the relationship that Jing-Mei and her mother go through.

Waverly Jong is an important character because she is everything that Jing-Mei is not—bright, smart and talented. Waverly’s mother’s role is mainly to point this out to Jing-Mei’s mother so as to further push her towards controlling Jing-Mei. Mr. Chong is perhaps the one character who is light-hearted; he does not overly push Jing-Mei and tries to make playing the piano fun. The setting of this story is in California back in the 1960s. Not only is this an area that received a large amount of immigrants, but older people reading the story may be able to relate to it because it is similar to what they experienced back then.

Another reason why the setting is so important is because of the way that immigrants were generally perceived back then. This helped to set up the basis of the story where Jing-Mei’s mother wanted to push her to become a child protege. This was perceived to be a way out of the typical stereotype of a Chinese immigrant and a way to assimilate into American society. The structure of Two Kinds is one than is simplistic and easy to read. After the narrator jots down an experience, she then gives her own opinions and reasons why she felt the way she did.

This helps the reader to understand why she felt what she did. Also, there are plenty of quotes from the mother, giving the reader a chance to understand where she was coming from. It is not until the end of the story that the reader realizes that the main character in the story is retelling it from when she was a child. The author could have chosen to mention this point at the start, but I think that is makes the story seem more real by reading it as though it could happen today. Amy Tan uses more of a narrative style in this story to get her point across.

This style allows the reader to become involved in the relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother. Because there are opinions of both the daughter and the mother that are offered, the reader is able to weigh up for themselves who is in the right and who is in the wrong. While Jing-Mei disagrees with the choices that her mother made for her, the tone displayed towards her is one of frustration yet respect at the same time. Jing-Mei’s attitudes toward her mother change in a positive way as the story progresses.

The piano was the main symbol of this story. At the beginning, it was shown contempt by Jing-Mei because of the way her mother harassed her about playing it to perfection. By the end, however, Jing-Mei was able to fully respect the gift that it was and even took the time to sit down and play it. Also, the names of the two songs played at the end (“Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented”) are symbolic of the way that Jing-Mei’