For the stories "Two Kinds" and "Everyday Use," write about the physical objects that become the focal points of the conflicts. What do these...

In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the authors use physical objects as focal points of the conflicts between the mothers and their daughters. In “Two Kinds” the object is a piano, and in “Everyday Use” it is a pair of heirloom quilts.

In Alice Walker’s short story, the older daughter, Dee, leaves her country home. She reinvents herself through education and life in the city. She changes her name...

In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the authors use physical objects as focal points of the conflicts between the mothers and their daughters. In “Two Kinds” the object is a piano, and in “Everyday Use” it is a pair of heirloom quilts.

In Alice Walker’s short story, the older daughter, Dee, leaves her country home. She reinvents herself through education and life in the city. She changes her name from Dee to Wangero, and wears clothing she associates with her African background. When she visits her childhood home, the quilts become an object of conflict. Dee asks if she can have them to use as wall hangings that depict her heritage. Her mother protests and lets Dee know the quilts are promised to the younger daughter, Maggie. Maggie learned to quilt from their relatives, Grandma Dee and Big Dee, who painstakingly pieced the quilts from bits and pieces of fabric worn by family members. These are the women Dee was named after; they are her true ancestors. Dee is afraid that Maggie will actually use the quilts, thus symbolically destroying their heritage. The mother understands that Dee is the one who actually destroyed her personal history by changing her name and looks. It is ironic that in her search for her past, Dee erases it, while Maggie, through her simple life, is maintaining it. The quilts symbolize the family history that Maggie will carry on.

In Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” the piano is symbolic of the mother’s dreams for her daughter in America. According to the mother, “you could be anything you wanted to be in America.” Unfortunately, the daughter is not interested in being a child prodigy, and refuses to practice diligently on the piano. She embarrasses her family in a failed performance, after which the piano sits unused in the mother’s home. A rift develops between mother and daughter, which is not resolved until after the older woman’s death. On the daughter’s thirtieth birthday, the mother tells her to take the piano. The mother is offering a truce but it feels like a victory to the daughter. The piano remains in the parents’ home for months after the mother dies. Once the piano is moved to her own home, the daughter sits down to play a piece of music from her childhood, which she realizes is symbolic of her life.

"Pleading Child" was shorter but slower; "Perfectly Contented" was longer but faster. And after I had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.