Two Kinds

The main theme of Amy Tan’s Two Kinds is best exemplified as the fine line between stubbornness and pride, and the influence these factors possess over a parent-child relationship. And then we must ask the question, “Who crosses that line?” Is it the overzealous mother who won’t concede to her child’s frequent whining to quit? Is it the daughter who, blinded by her adolescent ignorance, intentionally harms her mother emotionally? Are they …

…it can be said that the mother always maintains some form of pride, even if it is false. In fact, after her grueling piano performance, she says that “Pride and some strange sense of honor must have anchored my parents to their chars.” In this story, stubbornness is the result of this false sense of pride. While the daughter knows that one doesn’t need prodigious aspirations to have pride, the mother doesn’t understand.