"Two Kinds" is a story of a mother and a daughter living a life of high expectation in America which has always been looked at as the the country where dreams come true. Many people from other countries come to America to live the "American Dream". However, I believe that living in America has a lot of expectation behind it. Expectations have two sides, they either lead to achievement or disappointment. While the expectations Ni Kan's mother set her to live up to lead to disappointing both of them, I had a very opposite situation where the expectations others had of me pushed me to live above those expectations and achieve greater things. .
Ni Kan is a young chinese girl growing up in America. Her Mother believes that anyone could be anything they want to be in America. Ni Kan's Mother wants big things for her daughter, but that leads to very high expectations. The first idea is for Ni Kan to become a Chinese Shirley Temple. Ni Kan ends up looking like Peter Pan. When beauty does not work out the next thing was to try intelligence. Ni kan's mother would test Ni Kan with trivia questions every night after dinner. When Ni kan and her mother realized that she could not do the tests either Ni Kan began to notice the disappointment her mother had in her. Her mother then arranges for Ni kan to begin taking piano lessons with Mr.Chong, a man who lives in the same building. Ni kan soon discovers she also wasn't very good at piano either. Mr. Chong was deaf so Ni Kan found ways to trick him into thinking she was doing well. After some time Ni Kan's mother signed Ni Kan up for a talent show. Her mother is so full of pride until Ni Kan played her first wrong note and every note following was wrong too. After doing so terrible at the talent show she stopped playing. Ni Kan felt that she had always disappointed her mother. Ni Kan does not believe in herself the way her mother does.