OnTwoKinds读后感

On “Two Kinds”
In the story “Two Kinds”, the mother believed that people could be anything he/she wanted to be in America. That‟s how the story began. Based on this belief, the mother firmly believed that her daughter could be prodigy. She got all kinds of inspirations from TV or magazines and then put her daughter into various trainings. First, tests at home, from easy to difficult. Then piano, which was the focus of conflict between mother and daughter. The mother traded her labour so as to let her daughter have the opportunity to have piano training course every day. But the daughter, disappointed her again and again. In the end, the mother lost hope in her.
This story is typical. It‟s about the conflict between mother and daughter. Mother wanted daughter to be prodigy. However, the daughter rebelled everytime. She just wanted to be herself, to be independent. As far as I‟m concerned, to a very large extent, the culture difference should be responsible for the conflict here. From the story, we know that the mother came from China in 1949 after she lost everything. She was born and raised in China and had lived there for decades. Chinese way of thinking and doing things were deeply rooted in her mind. In other words, although she then had been living in America for years, she was heavily affected by Chinese traditions. As we all know, China was quite different from America at that time even now. In China, parents thought what their children were to be and prepared for them rather than the children themselves. They had no choice but to work hard to live up to their parents‟expectations. That‟s the obedient children. However, the daughter was different. Althouth born by Chinese parents, she was born and brought up in America. She was exposed in a totally different environment in which people respect independence and freedom and pursue for them. I think this is the originof the conflict. If the mother were native American or the daughter were raised in China, maybe the conflict would not be so poignant.
Now, I‟d like to talk about the characters in the story. First, the mother. Why did she force her daughter to learn so many things? Of course, for the sake of the daughter, parents always hope that their children could live a much better lfe. Just as the mother shouted in the story, “Only ask you to be your best. For you sake. Y ou think I want you be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!”And mothers in the world always think their children are better than others‟ and they believe that they can do everything well only if they try their best. All Jing-Mei‟s mother did was out of love, out of love for her which reminds me of Gump Forrest‟s mother. Much different as it is, they have one thing in common--love for their children. At the very beginning of the movie Gump Forrest, it is obvious that there‟s some difference between Forrest and other children. His legs have problem and so does his IQ. But Mrs Gump strongly believed that her boy was no different and he is going to get the same opportunities as everyone else. “Remember what I tell you, …you‟re no different than anyone else is‟, …you‟re the same as anyone else, you‟re no different.‟”“don‟t let anybody else tell you that they‟re better than you, Forrest.”I admire Forrest‟s mother very much for what she did for her boy.
In this story, Jing-Mei‟s mother loved her deeply, but I think the way of showing love is wrong: putting her into all kinds of training without asking for her permission, which becomes a tragedy for her. Nowadays, this scene is typically prevailed in China. Children should have a happy time in summer and winter holiday, but in contrast, they‟re taken up by mountainous training classes.
In addition, in my opinion, Jing-Mei‟s mother is kind of showing off. I watched the movie The Joy Luck Club which was based on this story, and I was a little shocked when I heard what Waverly said to her mother in the street after she won the chess champion and her mother told every body she knew ,“I wish you don‟t do that, telling everyone I‟m your daughter” “ why you had used me to show off, if you want to show off, then why don‟t you learn to play chess”. In this story, Jing-Mei‟s mother and Waverly‟s mother were talking about their daughters, proudly. I think they‟re showing off, too. They show off their children‟s achievement to meet their peacockery.
At last, I‟d like to say something about the daughter, the roll as I‟m in the family. In this story, Jing-Mei was treasonous. She rebelled almost everything her mother poured on her. She is a bird, prefering to fly freely in the blue sky rather than being caged. Perhaps many of us were just like her when we were young. We hate to be astricted, we didn‟t live up to our parents‟ expectations and disappointed them again and again. But our parents are the greatest people in the world. Whatever how many mistakes we make, they always forgive us. Until one day we realise their painstaking. We are grown up but they‟re old.。