David A Ruks]
[ANNIE NGUYEN]
[ENGL&101 S16 3250]
[Date]
Being Able to Communicate Effectively Can Save Hurt Feelings
In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds," readers discover that trying to force a person to be a prodigy cannot happen for many reasons. Among those reasons the mother puts her wants over the daughters. The mother puts her will over what the daughters wants. The mother miss out on opportunities to encourage her daughter
As readers, our first instance where the mother is not allowing her daughter to be the true focus of why she wants her daughter to be a prodigy is where she has not even asked the daughter what she would like to be when she grows up, she does not ask the daughter what she might like to do for fun. Instead, she decides her daughter should be a prodigy only so the mother can be just like her friend who has a daughter who is a prodigy. ' " Of course you can be prodigy, too," '.... ' "You can be best anything..' (Tan 1117)
Another time the daughter is not the is when her mother is watching old Shirley Temple movies on TV as if they were training movies. Instead of allowing her daughter Jei-ming to be the one interested in the movies, Shirley Temple, tap dancing or singing. The mother has to poke-Jei ming to pay attention to the movie on the TV. "My mother would poke my arm and say, ' " Ni kan" ' "-----You watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song,..." (1118).
We later see the mother take again trying the focus away from the daughter is when she decides to change her daughters looks to fit a look that is not her daughters want or idea, but instead in hopes to make her daughter's hair look more like Shirley Temple's. Instead of the mother not saying anything or saying sorry to her daughter. She makes her daughter think she is blaming her for the haircut that was not her idea in the first place, and becomes a mistake. " Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz." ' " You look like Negro Chinese," ' "she lamented, as if I had done this on purpose."
An instance where the mother could have encouraged her daughter but is unable to and does not bring forth a positive outcome is when she tries to make the daughter remember everything she can from a page from the Bible. "One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I could remember". ' " Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and . . . that's all I remember, Ma," ' "I said." Instead of encouraging her daughter, or giving her praise for trying. She allows her daughter to see disappointment. " And after seeing my mother's disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die." (1119)
There is also another time the mother loses an opportunity to encourage her daughter when the mother watches The Ed Sullivan Show, and there is ".... A little Chinese girl, about 9 years old, with a Peter Pan Haircut." The daughter defends the little girl on T.V. that in a way resembles her look. ' "What are you picking on her for?" ' ' " ...She's pretty good. Maybe she's not the best, but she's trying hard." ' Instead the mother tells her daughter ' " Just like you" ' "Not the best. Because you not trying" '...(1120)
When the mother decides yet again what the daughter should do, she decides she must now take piano lessons without seeing how the daughter feels about it, which is not favorable. "When my mother told me this. I felt as though I had been sent to hell." The daughter finally asks her mother "why you don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano." The mother replies ' "Who asks you to be genius?' ' "she Shouted" ' "Only ask you be your best." ' ''For you sake" "You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh!"(1120) This is after slapping her, and after many times in the past not realizing her daughter is already doing this, and the mother doing exactly what she now says she is not. Even a year after of her daughter practicing the mother still has not heard her daughter, and lies about having heard her. Only after her friend brags about her daughter, does Jing-mei's mother boast about Jing-mei's ability. "Waverly Jong had gained a certain amount of fame as Chinatowns littlest Chinese chess champion" ' "She bring home to many trophy," ' lamented Auntie lindo that Sunday. ' "All day she play chess. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings." ' Jing-mei's mother replies, ' "Our problem worser than yours, If we ask Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It's like you can't stop this natural talent" ' (1121)
After the climax of the story where the truth comes out about the mother being wrong, and the daughter being wrong. "A few weeks later, old chong and my mother conspired to have me play in a talent show" (1121). The mother still tries to make the daughter take piano lessons. Again because the mother is unable to tell the daughter she loves her, is proud of her, wants to know what her daughter is interested in. ' "You want me to be someone that I'm not." "I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be." (1121)
Many years later, the daughter is offered the piano for thirtieth birthday. She sees the offer of the piano as "...a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed." (1124)
Even after this and all the years her mother is still unable to express what she means to say, and the daughter still is unable to realize what the mother is trying to say. ' "Well I probably can't play anymore" ' ' "You Pick up fast " ' ' '' You could been genius if you want to" ' ' "No I couldn't " ' ' " You just not trying" ' Although they both have still not learned to communicate or understand what each other are saying they both have forgiven each other, and the daughter now knows her mother says what she says without meaning to sound like she does not love her. " She was neither angry nor sad" (1124)
Although the mother and daughter have overcome their past, they still disagree about how the daughter could have found a talent and how it could have been a more enjoyable experience. The daughter has learned her mother was trying to, in her own way, show that she loved her daughter, believed in her daughter and wanted to support her daughter, she just was unable to communicate it in a way for her to have possibly understood as a child.
At the beginning before trying to change the daughter, before disappointment was allowed to appear, too many forced tests, raised hopes had broken the daughter and her enjoyment. This has now begun to make her regret her mother and her mother trying to force her to be a prodigy the daughter was enjoying the idea of possibly becoming a prodigy. " In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother" This now leads the daughter to stop even trying anymore, to stop trying to be her best, and now instead tries everything not to be her best. "So now on nights when my mother presented her tests, I performed listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored. And I was"
Works Cited
Tan, Amy. "Two Kinds." Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William
Burto, and William E.Ca
Yes, I think your introduction could be improved. Think of an introduction as an inverted triangle. You want to start with a broad topic, or you can start with an interesting quote or anecdote. Then you gradually focus or in the case of a saying or anecdote, focus the meaning on, your specific essay topic. So here you can begin by talking about what a prodigy is the importance of a mother/daughter relationship or the study that showed that if you work at anything for 10,000 hours, you will become an expert, or choose a quote - I found this one with a quick goolgle search: "For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them."
Itzhak Perlman
After focusing down, then you end your introduction with your thesis statement, which is the main point of the essay and the argument you are trying to prove. In your essay, you have put your thesis statement first, which is not very effective. Also, don't include any actual evidence or examples in your introduction. Your introduction is just there to lay out your argument, then you prove it by giving examples in your body paragraphs.
Hi David, the problem you have in this essay is not the introduction or any other part of the essay, the main thing that you have to deal with, is to be able to understand the essay itself. You can never come up with a good writing let alone an analysis if you haven't fully understood the subject at hand.
Moreover, an analysis is an essay depicting how you understood the subject and not the way it is written here in your work. The approach you have in this essay is sort of a summary or the story that was told all over again, only in a different way, it is a way that you want to tell the story.
I suggest that you read the subject once again, understand and make your analysis work for you, this will definitely help you with the introduction, more so in the analysis itself. I hope this insights help and I wish to review your essay for further review.
Thanks very much. I thank you for helping me to understand. I just recently was told about the triangle. I appreciate you telling me I am to go outside the Text, and my Essay to find information.
So if I am understanding, it is okay to find a argument to back up my argument in the essay. Or maybe not use argument but instead people have told me to say Claim.
So like my First Claim is the mother is misinformed about what a prodigy is and decideds her daughter should be a prodigy for the wrong reason, and goes about trying to make her daughter a prodigy the wrong way.
Thanks again for the help with my thesis. I must have misunderstood my previous class. Where I was under the impression that a thesis could just be
In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds," readers discover that trying to force a person to be a prodigy cannot happen for many reasons.
Or maybe better to say
Becoming a prodigy can not be forced. (Thesis)
The mothers misunderstandings of why and how her daughter can become a prodigy leads the mother to....(topic sentence)
Thanks for the offer to see my changes.
Hello I appreciate your feedback and for having a different view or even different Analysis of my essay. I do think I have possibly misunderstood the way to interpret the Story, but I and those I have discussed my paper with say that this is really the point of How Analysis works. As readers we will interpret the characters differently, the possible symbols in the story.
(Moreover, an analysis is an essay depicting how you understood the subject and not the way it is written here in your work. The approach you have in this essay is sort of a summary or the story that was told all over again, only in a different way, it is a way that you want to tell the story.)
I am sure I am missing it but I thought I was showing my understanding of the subject by saying
As readers, our first instance where the mother is not allowing her daughter to be the true focus of why she wants her daughter to be a prodigy is where she has not even asked the daughter what she would like to be when she grows up, she does not ask the daughter what she might like to do for fun. Instead, she decides her daughter should be a prodigy only so the mother can be just like her friend who has a daughter who is a prodigy. ' " Of course you can be prodigy, too," '.... ' "You can be best anything..' (Tan 1117)
(It has been suggested I just switch my citations around so it is more like this below.)
' " Of course you can be prodigy, too," '.... ' "You can be best anything..' (Tan 1117)
The Mother says this Yet the reader knows this is not the case as the mother is not allowing her daughter to be the true focus of why she wants her daughter to be a prodigy. She has not even asked the daughter what she would like to be when she grows up, she does not ask the daughter what she might like to do for fun. Instead, she decides her daughter should be a prodigy only so the mother can be just like her friend who has a daughter who is a prodigy.
Thanks for being willing to keep helping me.
-Hi, I appreciate your review on my Opinion Editorial and figured I'd give a brief edit/review of your first paragraph and you can decide if you like the adjusted version or not. It is an interesting read, there's just some minor tweaks to be made simply to make it a more smooth read. If English isn't your first language or you're new to writing that'd be helpful information for myself to better understand your method/style of writing.
Among those reasons the mother puts her wants andover the daughters. The mother puts her will over what the daughters wants, therefore missing out on opportunities to encourage her daughter.
... the true focus of why she wants her daughter to be a prodigy is where she has not even asked her daughter what she would like to be when she grows up, she does not even ask the daughterher what she might like to do for fun.
... the mother can be just like her friend who has a daughter whoin a similar fashion is a prodigy.
Another time the daughter is not there is when her mother is watching ...
The mother has to poke-Jei ming to pay attention to the movie on the TV .
Thanks, Yes you bet. It's cool as I think we are from the same area. Yes I very much appreciate your help and your additions are very good.
I can use the changes other than
the mother can be just like her friend who has a daughter who in a similar fashion is a prodigy.
Another time the daughter is not thereis when her mother is watching ...
The mother has to poke-Jei ming to pay attention to the movie on the TV.
These here as I meant to have it come across that the mother is really just trying to just keep up appearances with her friend who has a daughter who is a prodigy. Jing-Mei is not a prodigy and I feel it's wrong how her mother says she accepts her, but really she is charging her.
