Analyse af Amy Tans novelle 'Two Kinds'

This part of the book is mainly based on a true story. Tan’s mother was forced to emigrate from China and move to USA, when the red army in 1949 marched into Beijing. Her mother had to leave her first husband along with her three daughters. Amy Tan was later born in Oakland in 1952, her father was a Baptist minister. Two kinds is the second story in a four novel collection called “The Joy Luck Club” written by Amy Tan in 1989.

Two kinds is the second novel of The Joy Luck Club book and in this part we meet Jing-Mei Woo, June, her mother and father, although the father is mentioned a few times. They emigrated from China to USA to chase happiness. The first thing we read in the story is this “ My mother believed that you could be anything you wanted to be in America”…”Of course you can be a prodigy to”. After June’s mother had tried to find several talents for her daughter, which she failed at all of them, when all hope was out, she got introduced to piano, which June got quite good at and performed at a talent competition. She failed badly and disappointed her mother again “But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything”. June knew that no matter what she did, she would still disappoint her mother. A few years later, her mother gave her the piano she had given her first time. Which June saw as forgiveness, her mother dies shortly after and she decides to play the piano again.