Final Paper

Submitted By Vickash-Bisram
Words: 626
Pages: 3

The relationship between a mother and her daughter are often very complicated and conflicting. This is due to the different mindset of both mother and daughter, the mother being raised differently by her parents and not being able to communicate well enough to understand each other. This can be seen in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”. “Two Kinds”, by Amy Tan, illustrate what life is like for many foreigners in America who are trying to give their child the opportunities they most likely did not have themselves as children. June says, “My mother believed you could do anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement…You could become rich.” (446) Suyuan is an Asian immigrant from China who believes that anything is possible in America, unlike China where she had runaway to be safe. June on the other hand, was born in America and became strongly influence by the American culture. We can start to see the struggle between this mother and daughter due to this cultural division. Also the mind set of Suyuan and June is because there is a generation gap; this is one of the reasons why June doesn’t understand her mother and the way she thinks. “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, illustrate what life is like for minorities in America who took full advantage of the opportunities given to them and resulting in a negative change of behavior. Mama says, “Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort…There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have.” (394) Mama is a loving mother who cares for both her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Mama seems to be favoring Dee more because she was able to further Dee’s education and allowing Dee to move up in society. The relationship between Mama and Dee is conflicting now that Dee has become a different person and being exposed to the outside world. Both stories involve the relationship between a mother and her daughter. “Of course you can be prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine, says June. (446) June and her mother struggle because June wants to see herself as fully American and her mother sees her as “Jing-Mei,” a Chinese American girl.