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A Daughter's Point of View February 26, 2001 In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman. "Two Kinds" is a powerful example of differing personalities causing struggles between parent and child. In every parent-child relationship, there are occurrences in which the parent places expectations on the child. Some children fall victim to a parent trying too hard or placing expectations too high, or, in the case of "Two Kinds," a parent trying to live her life through that of her child. However, the mother is also a victim in that she succumbs to her own foolish dream that "you could be anything you wanted to be in America." Knowing that her own time has passed, she wants her daughter to succeed by any means necessary, but she never stops to think of what her daughter might want. She strictly adheres to her plan, and her overbearing parenting only leaves the daughter with feelings of disapproval and questions of self-worth. The mother does not realize the controversy that she creates, and she cannot understand that her actions could be wrong. She also does not realize that she is hurting not only her daughter, but also the relationship that should bind the two of them together. The daughter can only react to her mother's strict and overbearing ways through rebellion and denial; she attempts to refuse her mother's commands and often denies that she wants those things that her mother wants. The daughter is bored with her mother's dreams and lets her pride take over. She often questions her self-worth, and she decides that she respects herself as nothing more than the normal girl that she is and always will be. Her mother is trying to mold her into something that she can never be, she believes, and only by her futile attempts to rebel can she hold on to the respect that she has for herself. The daughter is motivated only to fail so that she may continue on her quest to be normal. Her only motivation for success derives from her own vanity; although she cannot admit it to herself or her mother, she wants the audience to see her as that something that she is not, that same something that her mother hopes she could be. After her failure to satisfy her mother and herself at the talent show, the relationship between them soured at an accelerated pace, culminating in one final argument. "Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!" the mother shouted. "Then I wish I weren't your daughter," came the reply. A few words later, the daughter delivered the blow that all but destroyed the mother's dreams: "Then I wish I'd never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them," she screamed, alluding to her mother's miscarriages. "In the years that followed, I failed her many times, each time asserting my will, my right to fall short of expectations," the daughter narrates. At this point in the story, the narrator reveals that a significant amount of time has passed since her troubled youth. Her maturity slowly begins to shine, but discomfort is nonetheless evident: And for all those years we never talked about the disaster... or my terrible declarations... Neither of us talked about it again, as if it were a betrayal that was now unspeakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse, I never asked her about what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope? After years of separation, the mother surprises her daughter by offering her the piano. The daughter carefully manages her behavior toward her mother, for neither of them want to relive their harsh past experiences. When the daughter uneasily but politely declines the piano, the mother replies, "You just not trying." Despite the struggles that they both have endured, the mother clings to her convictions that her daughter could have been anything that she wanted to be, and continues to illustrate her disappointment through such subtle means. "Take it," she said again. The daughter's narration replies, "but I didn't at first... every time I saw it in my parents' living room... it made me feel proud, as if it were a shiny trophy that I had won." Despite the struggles that they both have endured, the daughter still cannot swallow her pride; she must continue to rub in her individuality and refuse her mother's dreams. Some time later, after the mother's death, the daughter has the piano reconditioned "for purely sentimental reasons." She touches the keys, which produce a richer sound than she remembers. Reminiscing, she plays the piece that she had attempted to play at the talent show so many years before. Whether she consciously knows it or not, she has matured and finally realizes that not only had her mother failed her, but she had also failed her mother. Throughout the story the daughter sees her mother as an obtrusive force that undesirably pushes her toward goals that have been set by the wrong person. Only after the death of her mother can she let her guilt override her pride. Only after the death of her mother, when she can act on her own accord and not please her mother, does she truly play the piano. Their conflict has gone unsolved, and the mother has died believing that she was a failure as a parent. Throughout the daughter's childhood, both are trapped in their own selfish illusions. Their personalities clash, and neither is willing to compromise. It is unfortunate that neither can realize the extent to which they have damaged themselves individually and jointly. They are fundamentally the same, but, blinded by tenacity, neither realizes that "they are two halves of the same song." © III Enterprises & neotope.com |
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