![]() ![]() Suyuan’s values of family obedience, concealment of unnecessary emotions, and criticism as expressions of love contrast with Jing-Mei’s American ideas of independence, self-esteem and open expressions of love guide Jing-Mei’s belief of never fulfilling her mother’s expectations. Suyuan Woo’s constant criticism hands Jing-Mei the idea of lack of affection, which results in Jing-Mei’s insecurity. Order custom essay Jing-Mei Character Analysis ” however, in doing so, she is rejecting her heritage and identity (). Jing-Mei feels she must reject her mother in order to find herself “right then and there, was determined to put a stop to her foolish pride. Jing-Mei believes her mother is trying to change her, Jing-Mei states “I won’t let her change me… I won’t be what I’m not…” despite her mother’s real intentions of her becoming successful (). She fights with her every way she can, determined to extinguish her mother’s dreams of her becoming successful, Jing-Mei neglects her studies as well as the piano. Jing-Mei has no desire to cooperate with her mother. ” When in reality, all her mother is doing is guiding her so she won’t have to go through the hardships she herself had gone through (). Jing-Mei’s stubbornness encourages her to believe her mother is being unfair and cruel, “when mother had told this, felt as though been sent to hell. Throughout Jing-Mei’s journey she begins to develop negative thoughts of herself and displays the attributes of insecurity, stubbornness and cruelty. Therefore Jing-Mei is unable to grow as her own person and carry out the choices she wants to. Jing-Mei’s mother continually enforces Jing-Met to carry out tasks the way she wants her to, her way. Amy Tan’s short story “Two Kinds” illustrates a young girls struggle with her highly opinionated mother and finding her own way. ![]() Tan introduces the pendant as a reflection of Jing-mei who becomes mature as she. At the time that she gives Jing-mei the pendant, its quality is compromising, though it improves with the passage of time. Suyuan gives a green jade pendant to her daughter and refers to that as Jing-mei’s life importance. That is why she does not identify any qualities in her personality and underestimates herself as compared to Waverly. The hidden message that requires attention actually is the fact that Jing-mei does not know what the best quality is. In the whole episode, Tan gives the audience the impression that Jing-mei can not tell good quality crabs from the bad ones. On the New Year’s dinner, Jing-mei picks up a bad crab and gets disparaged by Waverly. Jing-mei is particularly made to think negatively about her mother because of certain incidents. Jing-mei is of the view that her mother’s uninterrupted criticism signifies her lack of love, whereas in reality, the high expectations her mother associates with her and her mother’s severity are the symbols of her immense love, care and consideration towards Jing-mei. The clash of their personalities in fact symbolizes the clash of the Chinese and the American culture. Her mother is prudent and criticizing while Jing-mei wants freedom. Her mother and she are on the opposite extremes with respect to personality. Suyuan to Jing-mei is an extremely demanding and hard-to-satisfy Chinese mom who maintains an uncompromising attitude about the future of her daughter. Jing-mei does not have an all-time-pleasant sort of relationship with her mother. hinking that they have committed a big mistake by providing their daughters with opportunities in America that have broken their daughters’ ties with their indigenous Chinese culture. ![]() Of all the daughters, it is nobody else but Jing-mei who develops personality to the least level. Jing-mei confesses that she is fully capable of becoming a wonderful pianist, though she chose not to be one, and accordingly is not one. She feels that it is her fundamental right to be just the way she felt like being. As a child, Jing-mei maintains an inflexible attitude regarding expectations her mother associates with her. Jing Mei is the protagonist of the story. This not only unites the three sisters, but also provides Jing-mei with a solid understanding of her mother’s character. It is nobody else but Jing-mei who makes her half-sisters aware of what happened to Suyuan which is a very important incident of the whole story. She repents having ignored her mother whom, she feels so related to while traveling to China. This can be estimated from the immense arousal of emotions in her on her way back to China. The character of Jing-mei can also be perceived as a bridge between China and America. ![]()
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