Character and Theme. \"Two Kinds\"

¶ … character and theme. "Two Kinds" is a story of immigration to America and all the opportunities that are available to immigrants in this country. The narrator is the protagonist of Tan's novel "The Joy Luck Club," but it could be Tan herself telling the story. She tells the story in the first person, which makes it seem more real to the reader. The character changes throughout the story, which makes her a round character, and the theme of the story is the disagreements between mothers and daughters that can last a lifetime.

This is an interesting story about trying to please your parents and growing up. The character is a very round, dynamic character who shares her thoughts and feelings throughout the story. As a young girl, her mother wants her to do something remarkable, and at first, the little girl does everything she can to please her mother, but she does not succeed. The reader can feel her pain and sorrow when she does not please her mother. She remembers, "And after seeing my mother's disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die" (Tan 348). Everyone who has tried to please his or her parents and failed can understand just how she felt at that moment. There is nothing worse than disappointing the people you are closest to, and that is why she is sad and guilty at the same time. Her mother wants the best for her, but she is too young to see that, and she begins to resent her mother and her mother's desire for her to be something special.

This character is a round, full character because this experience changes her, and shows her how powerful and strong she can be. She thinks to herself, "I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not" (Tan 348). She learns something from this experience and changes, and that helps make her a more complex, believable character. She learns that she has power over her mother, and that she can even hurt her. She learns how to be lazy and still seem to be learning something. In short, she shortchanges herself and does not push herself to be better. Instead, she is determined to go against her mother's wishes, even if it harms her instead. She says, "But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns" (Tan 350). She is like many young people; she rebels against her parents and their beliefs and wants to be nothing like them. It takes her years to discover that the only one she really hurt was herself, because she cut herself off from her mother and her mother's feelings. She was selfish and never talked with her mother about it. She also hurt herself because she did not try to achieve things, or be the best. That is the only way people really become better people and stronger people, they must always push themselves to do better. She learns to be mediocre, and it makes her whole life uninspiring and dull.

Really, the theme of this story is growing up and how quarrelsome mothers and daughters can be toward each other, but it goes deeper than that. This is a story of a young girl trying to find her own identity, and distance herself from her parents and their ideas. The young girl defies her mother because she feels the need to be herself, but she hurts herself in the process. She never tried to be better or grow from her experiences, and because she believes she is ordinary, she really is. She does not push herself or test herself in any way, and so, she does not achieve anything. This really only hurts her in the end. Her mother is wise enough to know that she could have done more, but she stops pushing her to succeed. The daughter takes a lot longer to understand things, and by then, it is too late to make amends with her mother. The ultimate theme of this story is the love between a mother and daughter, and how that love can be lost or forgotten many times.

This girl is the "second" kind of Chinese daughter, the kind who follows her own mind (Tan 353), and this is terrible to her mother. The story title is "two kinds," and it refers to this part of the story, the two kinds of Chinese daughters, "obedient," and the other kind. This character is definitely not the obedient kind, and it costs her in the end. She loses a close and loving relationship with her mother, and she loses the feeling of being special, unique, and willing to try new things. Not only that, she is spiteful, and hurts her mother the very deepest way she can to show her own power. She gains freedom from the piano lessons, but she hurts her mother and their relationship so badly that they never really regain it. She is ordinary, and that may give her power in her own mind, but it limits her life and her relationships.