For every parent their child is the gem of their lives and they want the best for them. This is especially true for immigrant parents like the author’s mother. In “Two Kinds”, the author’s mother wishes the best for her daughter and hopes that she will be a prodigy child. This premise relies on the mother’s belief that “you could be anything you want to be in America”. However, the author believes that “you cannot change who you are, but instead you have to accept it”. Based on these two rather extremist view-points that are presented in the story, I feel that a compromise would have benefited the author’s relationship with her mother while she was growing up.

            By carrying the belief that her daughter is and can become a prodigy, the mother initiates an inevitable rebellion by her daughter. Pestering her daughter to become a “prodigy” in some talents, the mother causes her daughter to believe that what she is isn’t good enough, and this causes a loss of self-esteem and drive. This is shown when the author gets mad at herself and starts scratching at the mirror in her bathroom. A further development in this attitude is shown when the author just gives up on trying for anything that she does such as school and music. Through such an extreme belief, the mother alienates her daughter.

            Still, the attitude that the daughter builds also causes the conflict between her and her mother. She immediately discards her mother’s ideas and she begins to rebel in an increasingly violent fashion. The stages are shown as at first she listens to her mother’s ideas. Then she begins to pretend to listen, and then she begins to yell back and disobeys her mother. The last stage causes the author to lose her focus in everything, and she decides to defy her mother at all times.

            Instead of taking extremist view-points, the author and her mother should have been considerate of each other’s views in order to facilitate their relationship. One alternative view for them might have been, “make the best of what you have, but don’t go for way too much”.