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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that analyzes this short story of generational conflict. The writer argues that in the modern era, the rapidity of social change has made the background of each new generation subtly different from its predecessor, resulting in a breach of understanding that is commonly known as a "generation gap." Amy Tan shows in her poignant short story "Two Kinds" how the severity of this gap increases when mother and daughter come from two different cultures. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khtwoknd.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
breach of understanding that is commonly known as a "generation gap." Amy Tan shows in her poignant short story "Two Kinds" how the severity of this gap increases when mother
and daughter come from two different cultures. Her story features an American-born and bred protagonist, Jing-mei, who discusses the constant conflict with her mother that characterized her childhood
and adolescence. While Jing-meis mother has embraced the culture of her new home, the US, and is enthralled with the American Dream, she nevertheless is herself a product of
traditionalist Chinese culture. In "Two Kinds," the generation gap is complicated by this cultural conflict. Tan sets Jing-meis story against the backdrop of her mothers life
in China, as the narrative opens with Jing-mei telling the reader that her mother came to the US after losing everything in China in the late 1940s. Jing-meis mother lost
"her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls" (Tan 715). A strong woman, her mother never looked back but rather focused her
attention on the freedom and promise of the United States. She told her daughter that she could be a child prodigy. Jing-meis mother saw in America a promise that if
a person tried hard, anything could be accomplished. Therefore, she saw it as her duty to lead her daughter towards becoming an American success, which, in this case, her
mother interpreted as being a child prodigy. Jing-mei tells the reader that "we didnt immediately pick the right kind of prodigy" (Tan 715). Her mother tried different roles
on Jing-mei to see which would fit. She tried to make Jing-mei into a "Chinese Shirley Temple" (Tan 715). When this strategy failed, Jing-meis mother simply picked a different tactic,
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