at she will continue to have little influence on Emily's life and will not resolve this problem that she regretfully has made. Jing-mei's mom was very much the opposite of Emily's mom. Since Jing-mei's mom had already gone through hard times, she was more motivated and determined to succeed and not have the same outcome again. She put so much pressure on Jing-mei and eventually drove her to expect failure when she tried at anything. She forced Jing-mei to do many things against her will, and prevented her from growing up and giving her an opportunity to discover who she was. Luckily, Tan does write a resolution to this as Jing-mei:For the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called "Perfectly Contented." I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. "Pleading Child" was shorter but slower; "Perfectly Contented" was longer but faster. And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song. (255).Tan uses the "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented" as symbols to Jing-mei's life. The "Pleading Child" represents the time when she was young and she was struggling to be whoever she wanted to be, and free from the confinement put forth by her mother. "Perfectly Contented" represents the person Jing-mei has grown into. She at last finds inner peace with herself after all she went through. She learns to accept the kind of person she has become. When Jing-mei realizes that they make up two halves of the same song, it strikes her that her past and present make her a whole person. It makes up who she is. I think both mothers were bad models for parenting. Neither allowed their daughter to grow up and discover themselves as individuals. Through the words of both authors it seemed like both daughters regretted having a mom like they had. Perhaps there is no such thing as an ide...
