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Jarrale Daniels
Mr. Hackney
English 101: Rhetoric
13 November 2014
A Mothers Desires; A Daughters Disobedience

In Two Kinds Amy Tan tells the story of Jing-mei, a Chinese girl who deals with the
pressures of her mother pushing her to be a prodigy as a child. Jing-meis mother develops
constant challenges to put her daughter through, such as trying to mold her daughter into Shirley
Temple, having her memorize the bible, and most importantly, becoming a pianist. These
recurring tests can cause an individual, especially a child, to become psychologically hurt, which
weighs a great deal on a childs mind. The children turn to themselves to ponder what is wrong
with them, which develops inner struggles. Throughout the story, the use of psychological
warfare between mother and daughter and daughter and self are recurring. "Two Kinds"
illustrates the ongoing power struggle between Jing-mei and her mother through the use of
severe psychological conflict over obedience and the struggle for clear supremacy in the
relationship, while also slowly developing Jing-mei's inner struggle to be herself.
Psychological conflict, such as the pressure from her mother to become a Chinese
Shirley Temple (Tan 715), reveal her mothers early attempt to mold her daughter into
something she is not. This challenge at first interests Jing-mei. The young girl is full of hope, like
a typical child who wants to be a fireman, a singer, etc. However, her hope soon dwindles once
her mother continues searching for stories about remarkable children (Tan 716). Jing-meis
mother puts a tremendous emotional strain on her young daughter. The tests she presents in front
of Jing-mei are talents that a child can not easily learn. Such things as knowing every capital in

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the world, or predicting temperatures, are feats that are not installed into the average nine-yearold. However, her mother does not understand the psychological effect these challenges have on
her daughter. Because of the constant failure to perform them, Jing-mei sees herself as the cause
of her mothers disappointment. Jing-mei then attacks her reflection in the mirror, symbolizing
her hatred of herself because she can not measure up to the stories of amazing children (Tan
716). Jing-mei then, however, sees the self she has unconsciously created to combat her mothers
desires. According to Lois Tyson, psychological history begins during childhood. Because of her
mothers destructive behavior (Tyson 15), Jing-mei creates her own destructive persona that is
determined to stop the constant challenges of her mother. Thus, the psychological warfare
between the two truly begins.
Another example of psychological conflict is her mothers crusade to mold Jing-mei into
a pianist. After Jing-meis creation of the angry, powerful (Tan 717) prodigy inside of her, the
young girl begins to allow that person to take control of her life. Tyson states [o]ur unconscious
desires not to recognize or change our destructive behaviors are served by our defenses (15).
Jing-mei is feeding her behavior with the use of avoidance. Jing-mei believes that if she tries to
succeed she will do nothing but fail her mother once again. The young girl avoids trying to learn
the piano, because Jing-meis desire to destroy her mothers hope is controlling the young girls
actions. Jing-meis newfound rebellious nature is portrayed when she develops a plan to stop
her [mothers] foolish pride (Tan 721). Her mother and Mr. Chong decide that Jing-mei will
perform at a talent show, and the stage is set for Jing-meis destructive alter-ego to strike. Jingmei then used the defense of denial, which according to Tyson is believing that the problem
doesnt exist or the unpleasant incident never happened (15). Going into the show, Jing-mei
truly convinces herself that the prodigy side of [her] really did exist (Tan 721). She was so in

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denial that she did not worry about the sound she would emit. After embarrassing herself, the
alter ego, or prodigy Jing-mei saw, desperately wanted her mother to yell at her. I had been
waiting for her to start shouting, so I could shout back and cry and blame her for all my misery
(Tan 723). Jing-mei experienced a sort of anxiety. The anxiety she experienced was
disappointment she had because of her mothers lack of reaction. Anxiety can be an important
experience because it can reveal our core issues (Tyson 16). This anxiety revealed Jing-meis
unstable sense of self because she was so vulnerable to her mothers reaction. We would then see
this culminate in the next conflict.
The next example of psychological conflict is the final verbal altercation between Jingmei and her mother. After her blunder at the talent show, Jing-mei believed she would never
have to play the piano again and that the psychological warfare was over. However, Jing-mei is
dumbfounded when her mother says [f]our clock (Tan 723), meaning she needs to do her daily
piano lesson. In this instance, Jing-meis mother is going through repression. Tyson states that
repression is the expunging from consciousness, of unhappy psychological events (12). The
mother is still persistent. By continuing her crusade, her mother shows she is infatuated with the
idea that her daughter will become a pianist. Jing-mei combats this with her own mind games.
With every word spoken, Jing-meis inner-self takes over, giving her the strength to continue to
sit and watch tv as her mother slowly becomes enraged. As Jing-mei said no, she felt stronger,
as if [her] true self had finally emerged (Tan 723). Jing-mei feels the control her inner-self
needed to survive. The young girls defiance leads her mother to explode and physically drag
Jing-mei to the piano, causing psychological warfare to escalate to physical dominance. Jing-mei
then utters the words Ill never be the kind of daughter you want me to be (Tan 724). The
emergence of these words illustrates Jing-meis low-self esteem, which Tyson describes as the

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belief that we are less worthy than other people (16). Jing-mei does not believe in her ability to
be the daughter her mother wants. This then leads her mother to tell Jing-mei that there are
[o]nly two kinds of daughters (Tan 724), the obedient and disobedient. Her words feed Jingmeis inner-self more and more causing her to say I wish I wasnt your daughter. I wish I
were dead! Like them (Tan 724), referring to her dead children in China. This forces her mother
to derepress her loss of everything in China. [W]e keep the repressed repressed in order to avoid
knowing what we feel we can't handle knowing (Tyson 15). Her mother repressed the tragic
event and tried to run away from her past, which is why she wants to make Jing-mei into a
prodigy. However, when her past is staring her right in the face in the form of Jing-mei, the
recurring theme of being abandoned overcomes her.
In Amy Tans short story Two Kinds, she highlights Jing-meis dysfunctional
relationship with her mother and also her inner breakdown. Tan does so by illustrating the
psychological conflict between the two, involving conflict over obedience and clear dominance.
Recurring tests by an individual of position, such as a parent, create tremendous amounts of
stress on any person. A mother holding her daughter to standards of geniuses or prodigies can
create a child who only sees failure. This failure leads to an inner feeling of disappointment
causing the child to believe he/she will never amount to anything. Rather, they can only feel that
they can be themselves, like Jing-mei. This leads to a life of never trying, never fully reaching
the potential one can have. Thus, the child is then forever psychologically scarred.

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Works Cited
Tan, Amy. Two Kinds. 714-726 The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol
Oates. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 170-89. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Garland, 1999. Print.