The Short Story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan Essay

In her short story Two Kinds, Amy Tan uses influence of past events on present life, language subtleties, and daughter centrality to explain why the characters are in conflict and how it is exacerbated. The story revolves around Jing-Mei, an ethnic Chinese girl who was born in a family of Chinese immigrants to the United States. This setup lays the foundation for the first technique used by the author – referencing the characters’ past to accentuate their present dilemma (Wood 84). Two Kinds opens with Jing-Mei’s narration of her mother’s biography – her flight from Communist China to the United States. Most prominently, this technique is used during the climactic confrontation between Jing-Mei and her mother, when the Jing-Mei’s long-deceased sisters are mentioned (Tan 142). It forces the mother to completely change her attitude and never speak of the reason for that conflict again. The use of this technique leads to the development of an idea that past events have a long-lasting effect on people’s lives. The second technique is the use of different languages to emphasize cultural differences between characters. Cheng notes that language is presented as “a major gap” between mothers and daughters in Amy Tan’s writing (12). Considering that Jing-Mei’ mother is Chinese born, it is reasonable to expect lingual subtleties that distinguish her foreign origin. This aspect becomes especially noteworthy during Jing-Mei’s recollection of dialogues with her mother. The narration itself is in English, but some of the words said by Jing-Mei’s mother are not translated. Specifically, the phrase “Ni kan” is used on three occasions (132, 133, 135). It should be noted that this is not a Chinese linguistic subtlety that cannot be expressed in another language. The meaning of this phrase can be interpreted as “you watch”. In all three cases, there is no necessity to avoid the use of English language. Amy Tan uses the Chinese word specifically to accentuate how Jing-Mei recalls her mother’s words and the gap between them. This technique conveys the idea that the way someone speaks may sound as a foreign language to the person who does not agree with what is said. The third technique used by Amy Tan is what Heung refers to as “daughter centrality” in the relationship between mother and daughter (597). The story is clearly presented in a way that makes readers empathize with the daughter. The fact that the overall narration is first person further focuses the audience’s attention on Jing-Mei as a protagonist. However, this setup also conveys the daughter’s bias against her mother. Over the course of the story, Jing-Mei’s mother projecting her dreams on Jing-Mei is a recurring theme. First, there is an attempt to make Jing-Mei look like Shirley Temple (Tan 132). Then, her mother wanted her to accurately recall and correctly pronounce all capitals (Tan 134). Finally, it is the mother who forces Jing-Mei to learn to play piano (Tan 135). In each instance, the narrative pushes the audience to feel sorry for Jing-Mei and blame her mother. However, the use of daughter centrality also underscores the possibility that Jing-Mei may actually be wrong in her assessment of her mother. The first sign appears when Jing-Mei asks herself why her mother had stopped (Tan 143). The resolution of the story indicates that Jing-Mei finally understood her mother’s perspective when she found out what piece her mother had wanted her to play all along (Tan 144). This technique underscores an idea that narrating a story from a particular person’s viewpoint does not make that person right. Combined together, the importance of past, language subtleties, and first person narration make the audience believe that Jing-Mei is also a flawed character.

Works Cited

Cheng, Scarlet. “Your Mother Is in Your Bones.” Belles Lettres, vol. 4, no. 4, Summer, 1989, pp. 12. ProQuest, Web.

Heung, Marina. “Daughter-text/mother-text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club.”Feminist Studies, vol. 19, no. 3, 1993, pp. 597. ProQuest, Web.

Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds.” The Joy Luck Club, edited by Amy Tan, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1989, pp. 132-144.

Wood, Michelle Gaffner. “Negotiating the Geography of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan’s ‘The Joy Luck Club.’” Midwest Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 1, 2012, pp. 82–96. EBSCOhost, Web.