A daughter of two mothers summary

Running head: GUMPTION & TWO KINDS ANALYSIS 1

GUMPTION & TWO KINDS ANALYSIS 5

Gumption & Two Kinds Analysis

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In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" and Russell Baker's "Gumption," mothers’ dreams for making their children perfect and children’s chosen path for success both represents how a conflict of interest can occur at the time of two different paths crossing. Such conflict of interest can result in the desertion of an ideal. Several mothers want that their child exceeds them and reach their own personal goals. Exceeding in fields such as intelligence, achievement, financial steadiness, and most of all effort. Parents always try to strive in order to make their child’s future better. These both stories show when a mother has been destroyed or not realized, they project their dreams and desires on their children.

In Baker's "Gumption," his mother wants for Baker that he has some gumption. She believes that "The Lord helps those who help themselves". But Baker has a different thought and his aim was garbage collecting. Due to the lack of gumption, he was not able to get any jobs. His aim was not to be a good person just like other children instead of this he always wanted to collect garbage when he grows up. His thoughts affected her mother very badly.

Russell’s father was a low-class worker who died with leaving his organization. She wanted that Russell will become be like his uncle. He would be a successful man who will work in an office and get enough salary to support his family. His mother brings a smooth-talking salesman from the Curtis Publishing Company for his interview. After the introductory section, Russell breezes up with selling magazines out of a shoulder bag. As he has a lack of salesmanship, he will not be able to sell anything initially. But after that, his mother instructs him and he entered the world of journalism.

He started to deliver thirty freshly printed copies of the Saturday Evening Post in a shoulder bag. He started to enjoy the services after taking it as an allowance of journalism, fiction, and cartoons that hold happiness and security of free press. He made himself highly visible, shifting to sell these magazines. He could not sell magazines due to the lack of salesmanship. His mother taught him to ring doorbells, address adults with charming self-confidence and put efforts to sell these magazines. Suddenly, Russell started to think that he could take this post on the regularity basis. His mind was changed and he wanted to succeed in the magazine business.

As Russell did not sell a single piece of the magazine, her mother hit the streets with the canvas bag with anger. She busted out over him. She faced several difficulties when they were lived in Virginia. She was dissatisfied for her husband’s plain workman’s life. She thought that her child will be grown up as successful people. She always tried to pull Russell from his father’s world.

The childhood life of Russell was not so comfortable and his mother’s hectoring had different issues to deal with it. Russell gained much experience as being the former teacher of the school and only child of Virginia gentility. She had a lot of promising stretch of poverty and for this reason, she shared her depression with her sister Doris and her mother.

His mother gives him a life lesson that eliminates his low ability of gumption. Generally, parents want their children to be president when they grow up and focus towards his objective. But due to lack of his gumption, his mother was disappointed and never asked him. Her mother tried hard to change Russell mind and instructed him to be a good salesman.

Russell tries to convey a message through this novel that we should not accept our failure so easily. We have to try harder. Her mother decided Russell never think about him and didn’t do anything for himself by perusing life in business and focused on the carrier which does not demand more zeal. When her mother said to him that he could be a writer, Russell grasped the idea in his heart. Her mother gave the advice to live in a gliding life and writing freely. This condition helps Russell to begin his writing career.

In "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan demonstrates a connection between a Chinese-American little girl and her mother. In this story, Tan alludes to her adolescence, not based on social contracts, but rather of a young lady who dependably endeavors to end up conflicting with her mother's longing to end up phenomenal. According to the American mother, her daughter should achieve a great success as a prodigy. The woman wanted her daughter to have a talent so that she would use it in order to learn the value of hard work. She was confirmed by her daughter’s abilities. She always tried to find out the right avenue for her daughter’s talent. She tries to cast her daughter as a child actress, but she fails. After that, she starts to take intellectual tests with excerpting from different magazines. But, her daughter does not show any interest in it. Finally, she decides that her daughter must be a piano genius.

Her daughter become failed to find out interest in these activities. She is also struggling to find out herself in accordance to the prodigy side. Initially, she tries to convince herself in order to fulfill her mother’s expectations. Suddenly, her reflection starts to blink and it looks more powerful. Such situation motivates her and forces her to think wilful thoughts. She is interested in being a prodigy. But her mother is trying to mold her and engage her in an endless search to find her talent. After every attempt made by the girl, she failed to keep her mother’s hope up. Her anger pushes her piano carrier debut and her mother feels embarrassed in front of her friends.

She wants to please her mother but a lack of goal for acceptance to a normal life erected in a way. This situation creates an argument between mother and daughter and the girl says “You want me to be someone that I’m not”. Tan‘s chosen story title reflects on the whole story. The American mother appeals her position in the relationship by declaring two kinds of daughter: one is obedient and another who follows whatever she wants and obedient one can only stay in this house.

The main moment is associated with the last part of the story where the American girl sees the music pieces i.e. “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented”. These music relate to her growth from childhood to adulthood. These pieces of music reflect the relationship with her mother. They both wanted the best things in life for her daughter but in different ways.

In ‘Two Kinds’ story, Amy Tan tries to utilize the daughter's point of view in order to share a mother's efforts to handle her daughter's expectations and desires. This story also provides a brief indulgent of how their relationship curdles. This family came from China and the grown-up girl is sharing his life story with the coming generation. In specific, it is encountered that her mother's struggled parental guidance was dominated by unwise courage and visions. ‘Two kinds’ demonstrates the double perspective for both the simplicity of a young girl trying to identify herself and the reflection and finding of a mature woman.

The resourceful abilities and enough initiative are very helpful in order to achieve success. Here, Amy and Baker, two different writes use same metaphor and hyperbole in the context of embellishing the significant of events in their pasts, which have main value in their current age story. In both stories, it is shown that their mothers faced different problems and failed to achieve their goals. Bakers and Tan’s story character, the American girl both have had the childhood they did not wish for but they also acted to have found acceptance. Mothers always wanted the best for their children. But it is noticed in both stories, these children disappointed their mothers. In reality, these two mothers have dreams and aspirations for their children are genuinely their own dreams and aspirations. They were trying to live their lives through their children.