Two Kinds (summary)

                                         Summary of Two Kinds

                                                 
          Two kinds is a story that author Amy Tan recalled what happened around 1959-1960 between Amy and her mother. Amy was nine year old Chinese girl, born in the US.  Amy wanted to be American and wanted to do what she was really interested in. Her mother was a Chinese immigrant coming to the US in 1949 after her mother lost everything in China. In the US, her mother was a housekeeper. She had strong belief that you could be anything you wanted to be in the US. They lived on Sacramento, in China town, San Francisco. Two kinds is full of conflicts between daughter and mother. Her mother wanted Amy to become a prodigy. Her mother gave Amy many kinds of tests to seek where Amy’s talent was. Amy was excited at first. However, after failing some tests and seeing the raised hopes and failed expectations of her mother, she decided she wouldn’t let her mother change her. She didn’t cooperated her mother anymore. So, when her mother wanted her to learn how to play piano. She didn’t focus on learning, even though she knew her mother had to trade house cleaning services for Amy weekly lessons with her teacher. Soon, Amy found out that her teacher, Mr.Chong, was deaf and his eyes weren’t too slow to keep up with her wrong’s notes, she played carelessly. In contract, her mother worked hard to buy a second piano for Amy. When she was forced to play piano at talent show, she played terribly due to lacking of practicing. She made her mother feel embarrassed of mother friends because her mother invited them to witness Amy debut. Although Amy did it on purpose but she still felt ashamed of her parents. She thought her mother could shout at her when they came home. Surprisingly, her mother said nothing. Amy thought her mother might give up her mother high dream. However, two days later, there was a fight that was the most tension between them.  When her mother reminded Amy to continue playing piano again, Amy said that she didn’t want to play anymore and wanted to be herself. Her mother explained there were two kinds of daughter. Ones were obedient and others who followed their own mind. Of course, her mother wanted Amy was obedient daughter. Amy shouted at her mother that she wished she had died, like her sisters. Amy touched her mother pain that her mother had lost her twin daughters in China. Immediately, her mother retreated. She didn’t force Amy to play piano again and let Amy follow her mind. The way to resolve their conflicts was too painful. They both hurt each other. When Amy turned 30, her mother offered her the piano. She saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness. But she only took it after her mother died. Finally, they both forgave each other. In addition, once she played piano after she had the piano tuned. She recognized that she could played piano well.