Like Mother like Daughter? I think not.

We all know the saying "I want to give my child the life I never had" or some form of it, but what if your child doesn't want whatever it is that you didn't have? What if they just want to blaze their own trail with whatever it is you can provide for them?

I am grateful to Amy Tan for writing Two Kinds because in some way everyone can relate to it, whether you are the stage mom-ish parent or the resistant, seemingly ungrateful child, certain parts of this story hit home for every reader. I for one, at one point was the bitter, ungrateful child. Now being an adult (sort of) I really sympathize with the mother because it is so hurtful when all you want is for your child to be their best and they keep rejecting you.

Tan starts the story off at 9 years old watching Shirly Temple and in fact being just as excited as her mother about her possibly becoming some sort of prodigy. She describes herself as being "like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity", in other words she was starting her journey to child prodigy-dom. Well all good things must come to an end right? Later on in the story, after many failed tests given by her mother Tan says "something inside of me began to die". I found this statement very profound because it seemed so grown up of her to reckgonize in herself that this is not what she wants, "I won't be what I'm not", she says. So from that point on the story, unfortunately, takes a sour turn. Theres no more piano, no more over bearing mother, just life. Tan tells us she dropped out of college and never really accomplished her dreams, which may or may not still have happened had she had a little more respect for her mother, but then again she was a child being pushed into something she was not confident in herself doing.

Cut to the end, where the mother has died and Tan is in her 30s and is cleaning out the piano when she finds the two sheets of music aptly named "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented". I quickly recognized this as a metaphor for their mother daughter relationship. Tan's childhood was less than ideal with the stage mom and their adult relationship is what Tan would have liked when she was a child, for her mother let her do her thing and just be a normal mom.

On a side note, I think this story is rich in educating the reader about the work ethic of immigrants and how they pass that on to their children. Children of immigrants, who are born in America, typically have great respect for their parents who worked so hard to build the American dream for them. However as Tan proves, it doesn't always transfer generations... at least not right away.

** Above is a picture of Amy Tan and her mother. Click here for a great biography of Tan.