Family and Cultural Ties in Amy Tans Two Kinds and...

People have different culture backgrounds which are very special to them. Usually families’ tradition and thoughts are affected by their cultural backgrounds. Environment is one of the most important factors in a human’s development. When the term environment is used, it refers to factors such as family and cultural tie. In todays society, each individual is living his or her life in different a way than others. Individual’s life choice is generally controlled, learned, influenced, and raised by the cultural background. â€Å"Two kinds’ by Amy Tan and â€Å"The Red Convertible† by Louise Erdrich reveal how family is important and precious in culture. Story of â€Å"Two Kinds† by Tan is very similar to situations in South Korea. In recent years,†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Two kinds† is a story, a Chinese girl whose life is influenced by her mother. Her mother came to America after losing everything in China. Jing-Mei’s mother was immigrated early to America from China who has â€Å"American dream†. Her mother had high expectations on her daughter and did not care how it could affect her. It made Jing-Mei become a stubborn and rebellious person. â€Å"In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, †¦ for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. (104) She expressed her anger by going against her mothers expectations in ‘who I am’, it inferred that such tendency come from her childhood experiences. Jing-Mei was frustrated because she could not satisfy her mother. However years later, she was grown up enough to understand and realize her mothers love for her. In the last sentence of story, she wrote ,â€Å"[a]nd after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song† (105) Jing-Mei understood and rediscovered why her mother gave pressure on her. â€Å"The Red Convertible† is a story of Henry, the American Indian man, about how he was suffering from the experiences at the Vietnam War. The story begins when he and his brother purchased a red convertible car. This story indicates that how cultural ties and the brother’s precious memories helped recover Henry. Actually it is more about the importance of family. By