"Two Kinds" is truly an astonishing work; it captivates readers by telling the story of a young girl trying to find herself. Amy Tan does a phenomenal job, not only portraying a very real mother-daughter relationship, but showing how much a young girl can change. Jing-Mei evolves throughout the story in a way that many people can relate to; shattered hopes, obeying your parents even if it means doing something you don't want to do, and finally standing up for what you believe in. Since "You Could Be Anything You Wanted to Be in America" ​​(Tan 348) Jing-Meis' Mom thought that meant you had to be a prodigy. Although that made "everything [seem] too simple and too easy to realize [Jing-Mei] does not paint a picture of her mother as ignorant or stupid” (Brent) In fact, at first, Jing-Mei and her mother both try to “choose the right kind of prodigy” ( Tan 349). "(Tan 349). As she strived for perfection, she and her mother tried many different things to try to find the "right kind of prodigy" (Tan 349). “Every evening after dinner, [Jing-Mei and her mother] would sit at Formica. kitchen table. [Her mother] presented new tests, taking her examples from extraordinary children's stories she had read in Ripley's Believe It or Not, or Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest and a dozen other magazines… [Her mother] scoured them all, looking for stories about remarkable children” (Tan 350) Over time “The tests became more difficult: multiplying numbers in [his] head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to...... middle of paper ... the mother never spoke of the "disaster of the recital or of [her] terrible accusations afterwards on the piano bench" (Tan 356), she was surprised when his mother “offered to give [him] the piano, for his thirtieth birthday” (Tan 357). She does not accept it at first, but later “[Has] the piano reconditioned, for purely sentimental reasons” (Tan 357). When her mother dies, Jing-Mei really shows what a dynamic character she is. She realizes that, just like the songs in the piano book, she and her mother “were two halves of the same song” (Tan 357). Works Cited Bernheimer, Kate. “Two kinds.” Short Stories for Students, Volume 9: 287-302 Brent, Liz. “Two kinds.” Short Stories for Students, Volume 9: 287-302Tan, Amy. “Two kinds.” Literature: a portable anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner and. Al. Boston: Bedford/Saint-Martin, 2004. 348-357.