Mekhaiel 1
NAME: Mina Mekhaiel
Date: Feb 12/2015
Essay 3
Are the story’s ideas and messages still relevant today? Mostly, immigrant people move to the United States with their cultures, and they still intend to apply those cultures on their children; however, there is a problem here that those immigrant people don’t realize. Most of the time, either their children come with them when they are young, or they get to be born in the states, but the parents don’t realize that the time, the place, the environment, and the culture are different, and they can hardly enforce it on their children. In this story, which was in 1960, the narrator, Jing-Mei stood up to her mother and tried not to follow her mother’s will to make her a prodigy, so she could compete with one of her friend’s daughter. Very important questions here, Are those ideas and thoughts still can be applied nowadays, and what are the children’s actions against those ideas? What is the influence of those ideas on the children’s lives? First of all, is it a fact that those ideas and thoughts can still be enforced these days? The way that the mother grew up in her country, which was china, was totally different from the way that children grew up in America. She thought that she could make her daughter a prodigy in any matter. “Of course, you can be a prodigy, too” (1), the mother said. She tried to make her daughter be like people on the TV programs, when they sing a song, dance in fantastic way, or do some unbelievable stuff. Also, she tried to make her daughter a hair stylist; in fact, her daughter unintentionally failed. The mother always tried to do the same to her daughter, as her Mekhaiel 2
Parents did it to her. Every time the mother forced her daughter to do something or learn something, yet the daughter failed without a choice because that was not the daughter’s desire; it was not exactly what the daughter wanted. In the old days, those cultures and thoughts could be applied, but nowadays with all the new technology, the freedom, and the open world in the United States hardly they could be applied. Second of all, what was the daughter’s response to all of what her mother was trying to do to her? The daughter was following her mother and saying yes to anything her mother asked her to do. She thought that she could be a prodigy in any way. “I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images” (1), the daughter said. Every time the daughter failed to learn something or do something, she realized that she couldn’t change to be someone else just to impress her mother. Her mother was trying for her to answer really hard questions, such as “what are the capitals of all the sates or all the foreign countries” (2), of course, the girl failed because she did not have the talent to memorize those stuff. She forced her to learn how to be a pianist, and “she traded housecleaning services for weekly piano lessons for her daughter to practice” (2), but the daughter did not want to. She refused to take those piano lessons. “I am not a genius, I can’t play the piano” (2), the daughter said. After all the mother’s forcing, the daughter had to take the piano lessons. Of course, it was very much fighting between her and her mother because of the different thoughts and the way of learning. Finally, what was the influence of those thoughts and the mother’s ways of thinking on the daughter? The mother was so restrict on her daughter. “Only two kinds of daughters, those Mekhaiel 3
Who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (5), the mother said. After the mother forced her daughter to take the piano lessons, there was a social club where all the children could perform their talents. When they got to Jing-Mei’s turn, she started playing, and she was confident; however, during the time that she was playing, she got nervous. “A chill started at the top of my head and began to trickle down” (4), Jing-Mei said. She was playing without paying attention if it sounded good or not. As a matter of fact, she played really horrible. The only person, who was saying “Bravo Bravo well done” (4), was her teacher Chong, who was deaf. Jing felt so bad about herself, and she wanted to cry, but she didn’t. Waverly, who was her mother friend’s daughter, liked to brag, and she told her “you are not a genius like me” (4), the mother was disappointed and so was the daughter. The sadness was all on the Jing’s face. This was because of what the mother enforced her to do. The girl felt shame about herself. Years past the mother died and the girl failed; she did not get a straight As, and she dropped out of college. To summarize, two kinds was just an example of an immigrant Chinese woman who was trying to live her life through her child. However, that did not end successfully. The story seemed to suggest that the different cultures hardly could enforce in the United States; especially when the children were born in the states. Parents have to listen to their children and their desires. They have to consider that the way they grew up was more different than the way that their children grew up.