The Relationship Between the Mother and Daughter in Two Kinds

In the short story “Two kinds”, the protagonist and her mother have a relationship that is always full of crossing each other paths. When the story first begins, the protagonist seeks to become what her mother says she should. The mother wants the girl to be a successful person and expects her to be a prodigy kind of girl. On the contrary, the little girl does not believe that she is a genius. The mother is always commanding while communicating to her because she wants the protagonist to be what she sees on TV. When the protagonists is finally forced to perform at a concert where she failed terribly, she decides never to listen to her mother again since she has been wrong about her abilities. In one of her developed rebellious behavior, she blatantly replies ”I’m not going to play anymore,“when her mother told her it is time to play the piano

(Rtsd.Org, 2018).

”Everyday use” by Alice Walker

            In the short story ”Everyday use” the protagonist Dee who later changes her name to ”Wangero” turns into a conservative and egocentric girl after travelling to a far land to study. On her arrival, she seems to disagree with her mother on almost everything. They have the tendency of miscommunicating with her mother due to her changed attitude concerning the white culture and the black culture. She becomes deeply entrenched into the black culture and traditions and considers her English name ”Dee” as given to her by former oppressors. When she comes back from college, she exclaims God knows I been saving ’em for long enough with nobody using ’em. I hope she will!”, referring to the quilts made by her grandmother that she originally despised as old school(“Alice Walker”). She now attaches value to them

Works Cited

Rtsd.Org, 2018, https://www.rtsd.org/cms/lib/PA01000218/Centricity/Domain/319/Twokindsfulltext.pdf. Accessed 14 Apr 2018.

“Alice Walker”. Xroads.Virginia.Edu, 2018, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/quilt/walker.html. Accessed 14 Apr 2018