Two Kinds Of Women, Two Kinds of Daughter
...have already succeeded. In order to further her child’s development as a prodigy, she begins daily testing of Ni Kan in order for her to develop the savant like qualities. As Ni Kan begins to take less interest in her mother's testing she begins to purposefully give wrong answers in order to discourage it. Her mother becomes disappointed and relents. After Ni Kan sees her "mother's disappointed face once again" something inside [her] begins to die” (Tan, 1279). She begins to rebel and now she sees the "prodigy" in her as the cause of the rebellion. Upset at not being a prodigy, Ni Kan soon finds out there are two kinds of daughters, and maybe she doesn’t fit into the category her mother would like. When Ni Kan sees her mother talking to Auntie Lindo, she hears her remark, in reference to her daughter, Waverly, “She bring home too many trophy, all day she play chess,” (Tan, 1284). In response to her boasting disguised as grousing, Ni Kan boasts back that her daughter is to busy playing music all the time, “It’s like you can’t stop this natural talent,” (Tan, 1284) At this moment Ni Kan becomes furious that her mother is painting her as something she’s not, so that she might be as proud of Ni Kan as Lindo is of her daughter. Ni Kan matter-of-factly states, “I was determined to put a stop to her foolish pride,” (Tan, 1284). Ni Kan indeed does put a top to her foolish pride, purposefully fooling her deaf piano instructor and putting on a disaster of a recital during a talent contest. It is this event which brings the situation between her and her mother to a head. Her parents’ intense embarrassment at her recital failure evident, she intends never to go to piano practice again. When her mother and she argue about going back to practice her mother shouts, “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow in their own mind! Only one kind of daughter live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (Tan, 1284). This enrages Ni Kan, because in a sense her mother is rejecting everything about Ni Kan. She feels that she isn’t good enough to be a prodigy, a feeling which goes all the way back to when she couldn’t pass her mothers tests, thus making her feel like a failure. If only one kind of daughter can live in the house, and it isn’t the kind Ni Kan feels she is, then what does that say about the way her parents feel about her? Ni Kan lashes back yelling, “I wish I wasn’t your daughter… I wish I was dead like them,” in reference to her mother’s previous two children who died in China (Tan, 1284). The result is a stunned silence on the part of her mother, “her face went blank,” is the exact terms used, almost a precise replica of the description she uses about her mothers reaction to her failed recital (Tan, 1284). It is made clear here that Ni Kan is no the kind of daughter her mother wants, or at least that’s how Ni Kan feels. In fact Kan states, “It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me, In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will…For unlike my mother ...