June, the protagonist and narrator of “Two Kinds,” began by explaining her mother’s overly high expectations of her. Her mother, Suyuan, had fled from China, losing everything including her twin daughters. She believed in the American Dream, and she thought that if June would have just tried, she could have been a genius and/or famous.
Suyuan pressured her daughter from a young age. First, inspired by Shirley Temple, Suyuan tried to turn June into an actress. Suyuan took her daughter to get a perm, and it was a mess. June had to get her hair cut down into a “Peter Pan” style. Acting was not a good fit, so Suyuan moved onto other talents.
June described that she was excited at first:
- “I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtain, waiting to hear the music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air.”
June sought her parents’ approval. Suyuan would search for ideas in magazines. The talents she pushed on her daughter included:
- Reciting capital cities
- Mental math
- Card tricks
- Headstands
- Predicting temperatures of major cities
- Memorizing the Bible
All the failed attempts began to weigh on June, and her excitement disappeared. She said:
- “And after seeing, once again, my mother’s disappointed face, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations.”
June’s attitude changed, and she decided to rebel against her mother. She claimed her independence by refusing to try at the tasks her mother forced on her. She did them, but she did not try hard.
