In "Two Kinds," the piano represents a type of trophy.
Jing-mei's mother has a desire to make her daughter into something she is not. Also, the
piano represents the struggle between a mother and daughter. Jing-Mei does not desire to
play the piano. Her mother is determined that she will play like a star child prodigy
she has seen on television:
This particular struggle invokes the mother's
attempt to mold her daughter, Jing-mei, into a musical prodigy so that she will be able
to brag to her friend Lindo Jong, whose daughter is a precocious chess
champion.
For years, Jing-Mei
and her mother struggle because her mother is so determined to make her daughter into
something she is not. Jing-Mei's mother desires to have bragging rights in a type of
competition with Lindo's daughter who is a chess
champion.
The piano recital is Jing-Mei's chess board. The
piano is a type of trophy that Jing-Mei's mother can have as a symbol of her daughter's
accomplishment. In much the same way that Lindo brags over her daughter's chess
trophies, Jing-Mei's mother desires to boast about her daughter's musical
trophies.
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