"Two Kinds"

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes how Amy Tan directly addresses a power struggle between a mother and a daughter. The paper examines how the mother's sad story of her emigration from China under adverse conditions makes it clear that the mother has no control over her tragic past. Instead, she has high hopes for the future. The paper further examines how the intractable and resistant daughter's battle with the overbearing and desperate mother shows the levels and complexities of their relationship and reveals a universal truth.

From the Paper:

"The lack of control over their pasts makes both women zealous to have a future that is different. Unfortunately, their zeal for the future is not shared, or not shared in the same way, by their daughters. Their controlling behavior alienates their daughters and causes competition between the mothers, too. Such hope for the future is so impossible that it is destined to fail. The perspective of a daughter looking back on a childhood event is imbued with regret, and the narrator says, "I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable.""

More papers on "Two Kinds":

• Analytical Essay # 64847 : "Narrator's Role in "Two Kinds"
• Analytical Essay # 134313 : "Free to be Me: Amy Tan's "Two Kinds"
• Analytical Essay # 1807 : "Amy Tan's "Two Kinds"
• Comparison Essay # 113914 : "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Two Kinds"

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