A Literary Essay Sample: Conflict within Jing-Mei

Jing-Mei is a rebellious daughter who is caught in between two very distinct cultures; the American culture which prevails everywhere and the Chinese culture which prevails in the home of the mother. She is in constant resistance of the numerous attempts that her mother made, mostly at disciplines and further becomes resentful of the pressures of the extreme achievements which parents sternly place on children, typically. Suyuan, Jing-Meis mother, pushes her into a number of different activities in attempt to unleash an underlying talent. Her mother wanted to brag to other women about her daughters talent. Jing-Mei becomes resentful towards the manner in which she is pushed into activities that she does not want by her mother, especially piano. The more she felt like it was as if she was disappointing her mother, the more she sabotaged her own progress, deliberately. She does not like how her mother compares her to other children of her own age, who are talented in their own ways. Her mother places unrealistic expectations and absolutism upon Jing-Mei which creates conflict within her. She has her own aspirations but her mother believes that America is the land where with hard work and luck one can be anything they wanted to be. Her mother vicariously tries to live through her and she recognizes the faults in her mothers plans making her to maintain conflict within herself (Tan 49).

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Jing-Mei has no desire whatsoever to collaborate with her mother. The external conflict that Jing-Mei faced from her mother caused her to have internal conflict within herself. When she realized that her mother had lost all hopes on her only daughter, something inside of her began to die. She despised the hopes that were raised and the expectations which later on failed. No matter what she did so as to make her mother proud, it somehow seemed to fall out of place and she started despising herself as she believed that her mother did not accept her for who she was. Her mother was more interested in her becoming something great so she could simply bra to her friends, forgetting that Jing-Mei also has her own dreams. This caused Jing-Mei to become very stubborn and bitter. Her mother was driving her into becoming something that she was not, and it made it very difficult for her to have to decide between two lives, her mothers or her own (Tan 56).

Jing-Mei is two kinds as the story suggest as how different she became when she turned into adulthood. The more she grew up the more she understood her mother. The fact that her mother wanted her to become something that she did not want to made her two kinds. While she was a child, she was naive but since she has grown into adulthood, she does not simply agree to just anything that her mother suggest, as she wants to decide what she wants for her life without any pressure. Her mothers statement suggested that there are two different kinds of daughters in the world; those who are rebellious and those who obey. As an adult for Jing-Mei, she can perceive the little bit of rebel and obedience in her and at the moment she has become mature enough to realize what her mother was really doing to do for her. It was very difficult for Jing-Mei to find out who she really was due to the pressure that had been put upon her by her mother (Tan 64).

Work Cited

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Place of publication not identified: Penguin Group US, 2007.

Internet resource.