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What ideas does Amy Tan present about factors which shape an individual's identity in "Two Kinds"?

The story helps us appreciate that two factors that shape us are heredity and environment.  Jing-mei’s mother influences her because she tries to teach her a specific set of values that she hopes will be successful.  Her mother, in turn, is influenced by her own environment.  She is an immigrant so she brings along a set of expectations for success in America.  She is also influenced by media and the neighborhood.


Jing-mei’s mother wants her to be successful.  This is why she decides to make her a prodigy, or a child genius.



My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.



At first, Jing-mei is willing to go along with the prodigy experiment, and even thinks it is fun.  It turns out to be a bust, through.  Jing-mei has no hidden instant talent, and she doesn’t really understand that she has to work at something to get good at it.


Jing-mei’s mother sees the kids on television and wants her daughter to be like them.



I could see why my mother was fascinated by the music. It was being pounded out by a little Chinese girl, about nine years old, with a Peter Pan haircut. The girl had the sauciness of a Shirley Temple. She was proudly modest, like a proper Chinese child.



Jing-mei and her mother do not communicate very well, which is what leads to the argument and the lack of follow-through with the piano lessons.  Jing-mei thinks her mother just wants her to be perfect.  Her mother wants her to learn to work hard.  In the end, Jing-mei does seem to be influenced by her mother, and her mother’s influences, because she looks back on this and takes the piano.

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