Parental Control in Two Kinds

Parental Control in "Two Kinds" Parental control exists in almost any parent-child relationship and almost leads to disappointment. Parents generally want to control their children so that they can see them grow into successful, productive human beings. While intentions may be good, parental control is generally a bad idea because individuals can only be who they were born to be. Amy Tan's short story, "Two Kinds," illustrates this point through the relationship with Jing-Mei and her mother.

These two characters are strong willed and neither wants to give in to the other, which places an incredible amount of stress on the relationship that does not mend until decades later. The story teaches us that parental control needs to be tempered with the wisdom of knowing that one's children are people, too, and cannot be forced to live a particular life. Parental control often leads to rebellion. This result is just what the parent wishes to avoid but cannot because control becomes the primary issue rather than individuality.

Jing-Mei reacts negatively to her mother's insistence that she become a prodigy after she becomes obsessive about it. In the beginning of the ordeal, Jing-Mei is excited that she might be talented but this is soon washed away because she feels too much pressure to perform. She becomes listless and "pretended to be bored" (Tan 2). In turn, her mother becomes more controlling, telling her daughter that she will not tolerate disobedience and "only one kind of daughter can live in this house" (8).

Jing-Mei rebellion is typical because she is just like everyone else when she does not want to be controlled by another individual. Jing-Mei is actually quite normal when she declares that she will not let "her change me" (3). Parental control backfires because it goes against what all people are born with - a sense of freedom. Parental control can also be devastating as Jing-Mei demonstrates when she describes her lessons like "being sent to Hell" (4).

She does not want to play the piano anymore and she does not even want to try. Whatever excitement she might have had was killed because her mother was so controlling. The height of this devastation reveals itself at a recital when Jing-Mei proves that she is no prodigy. However, her mother refuses to accept this. The pressure is too great and only stresses their relationship so much that Jing-Mei grows angrier and wishes her mother dead. This ends the piano lessons but it does not mend the relationship.

It would take years for each to recover from the effects of parental control. Jing-Mei was not nurtured in the right way to see if she had a natural talent or not. She never had the opportunity to grow at her own pace and this was something that her mother had to live with every day for the rest of her life. Parental control can also work against a parent/child relationship because even if a child is talented, rebellion will destroy opportunities and appreciation.

Jing-Mei might have possessed what was needed to be a prodigy but she spent all of her energy resisting her mother, so she will never know. While this may seem trivial at the moment, we see how this thought plagues Jing-Mei until her adult life. The piano was like a ghost looming just behind them and even as an adult, Jing-Mei's mother believes her daughter simply did not try.

Jing-Mei declares that she could not have been a genius but the truth is that neither one of them will never know because so much energy was wasted on arguing about the piano. It is interesting to not that after her mother offers the piano to her, she looks at it like a "shiny trophy I had won back" (9). In addition, in the final scene when she is looking at the piano and touching the keys, she notices the names of the pieces of the songs.

Their titles illustrate the changes Jing-Mei went through as a result of the piano and they also represent her mother's dream that died along the way. Jing-Mei never believed in herself long enough to know the truth behind her talent because of.