Amy Mother example essay topic

In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds", the piano lessons served a different purpose for each person in the story. The significance differed in Amy as a child, Amy's mother, and Amy as a grown woman. As a child, Amy felt she was being made into be something she was not. For her, the piano lessons signified her imperfection. "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me" (500).

She longed to be that perfect child her mother could love and be proud of, but Amy felt she could never be that. "And after seeing my mother's disappointed face once again, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and the failed expectations" (501). As time went on, the piano lessons became a way for her to assert her independence.

After the horrible recital, Amy decided enough was enough. I didn't budge. And then I decided. I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave. This wasn't China.

I had listened to her before and look what happened. She was the stupid one. (507) The little Chinese girl had made up her mind long ago that she was only going to be who she was and nothing more. "I won't let her change me... I won't be what I'm not" (501).

The piano lessons just gave her a way to show it to her mother. Amy mother had different intentions. For her, the piano lessons signified success. She wanted the best for her child and believed Amy could accomplish anything she wanted to". 'Who ask you be genius?' she shouted. 'Only ask you be your best.

For you sake' " (503). When Amy failed time and time again, the disappointment left her dream of success in America smaller and smaller. When the piano lessons started, Amy's mother saw that Amy was attending practice and felt that finally she had a daughter prodigy, and therefore, bragging rights. "And my mother squared her shoulders and bragged: 'Our problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-mei (Amy) wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It's like you can't stop this natural talent' " (505).

After the recital, it was obvious that all of Amy's mother's dreams rested on Amy's success. "But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet blank look that said she had lost everything" (507). The argument that followed soon after that recital reassured her that she had lost all control of her daughter's future and consequently, her success. As Amy grew older, she came to understand what her mother was trying to do by forcing her to take piano lessons; she was trying to give her daughter a better life than what she had. Coming to America meant opportunities that did not exist in China, opportunities for a better life. "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America...

America was where all my mother's hopes lay" (499). Amy felt guilty for all the times she had not cared and especially for the fight after the recital, but never asked why her mother had given up hope. When she was offered the piano for herself, she refused, but said, "I saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed" (509). She finally understood her mother whom had always said Amy could be whatever she wanted". 'You could be genius if you want to... You just not trying,' said my mother...

She said it as if to announce a fact that could never be disproved" (509). For even all after all their disputes, Amy realized that her mother still loved her and wanted her to be the best she could be. This story offered three very different perspectives on the significance of the piano lessons. To Amy as a young child, they meant breaking free and being herself and nobody else, and to Amy's mother, they represented a better life for her daughter. But to Amy as a grown woman, they signified her mother's intentions and her own ignorance to them when she was young.