EBay Essay Example Essay Example

EBay Essay Example Paper EBay Essay Introduction The company has now about a billion registered users and is the most popular shopping site on the Internet. EBay’s mission is to provide a global and economic segment platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything. It features a variety of international sites, specialty sites, and 50,000 categories of merchandise, and services that aim to provide users with the necessary tools for efficient online trading in both auction style as well as fixed price formats. Recently eBay added a Want It Now and Best Offer format providing new ways for shoppers to find and buy what they want on the website. Europe, Asia and cross-border trade are major areas of growth for eBay and an immense source of revenue. The firm offers localized sites in 24 countries. On any given day, millions of items are listed on eBay in thousands of categories. People from all over the world buy and sell on eBay (Hillier, D. , ; Slouch). EBay corporation has two core businesses, a payments busines s of which Papal is the flagship brand and platform and a marketplaces business of which the eBay website along with its various international versions are the flagship brand. While eBay formerly also had a third core business in the communications space with Keep, which it acquired in 2005 and built into a 500-million-user juggernaut, eBay’s majority stake in Keep was sold to a consortium of investors in late 2009, though eBay retains a minority interest in the platform. However, year over year growth has slowed, with an increasing proportion of overall growth coming from its payments business and an ongoing process of reorganization and strategic change coming to characterize the marketplace business. EBay Essay Body Paragraphs Some of the declines and difficulty in this latter sector are due to increasing competition from competitors, most notably Amazon. Com and Google. Recent economic conditions have also taken a toll, with revenue, refit, listing volume, and share price all falling through 2008 and into 2009 before something of a turnaround took hold on the strength of new strategic orientations both in core businesses and marketplace platform structure, pricing, and policy. 2. Considering the five (5) forces of competition, choose the ;o (2) that you estimate are the most significant for the corporation you chose. Evaluate how well the company has addressed these two (2) forces in the recent past. The degree of rivalry among established companies within eBay industry is very high. This high degree of rivalry is very common in discount retail industry due to the high concentration on being the price leader. EBay competition is very broad and varies with each of its different products. EBay competes clos ely with many well know broad-based companies such as traditional department and general merchandise stores, as well as a large variety of online retailers. Due to this complex competitive industry, eBay must concentrate on many competitive factors such as: ability to attract buyers, volume of transactions and selection of goods, customer service, system reliability, brand recognition, and many others to keep their edge. The bargaining power of buyers is low because the seller sets the prices of the products and because a majority of the sales are in an auction platform. This gives eBay and the buyer less control of the products prices, but in most cases the large amount of sellers per product keeps the prices low and competitive. The buyers benefit from the competition of the sellers, convenience Of a trade environment, and not on the power Of price bargaining. The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively high because eBay must keep its fees and commissions low in order to attra ct and keep loyal sellers. Sellers re the suppliers of the products and are able to pick from different auction companies and select one offering the lowest fees and commissions. 3. With the same two (2) forces in mind, predict what the company might do to improve its ability to address these forces in the near future. The risk of entry by potential competitors is relatively high due to low barriers to entry. New competitors can launch new sites at a nominal cost using commercially available software. This low barrier to entry will cause competition to intensify in the future. Also due to the broad range of products sold at eBay there is any more opportunities for new competitors to enter in more specific market segments. 4. Assess the external threats affecting this corporation and the opportunities available to the corporation. Give your opinions on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threat and the greatest opportunity. Justify your answer. EBay’s core bu siness of online auctions is struggling. Traffic has dropped as consumers favor websites with set prices, such as Amazon. Com and Walter. Com. The biggest issue eBay faces is that consumers have other e-commerce alternatives, including Amazon. Com and Busty. Mom-especially for mainstream retail goods, which now represent 50% to 60% of eBay’s product mix. With eBay extending its platform into fixed price sales, it was also petrified that Amazon might buy half. Com instead, which would have propelled the retailer’s growth from e-commerce into a virtual network. The acquisition has enabled eBay to develop its fixed price model, with many auctions advertising a â€Å"buy-it-now† option. As long as eBay management continually takes their pulse and monitors their temperature, the health of the marketplace will be maintained. Attack by illegal practices is threat. As with weaknesses above, the brand is attacked by unscrupulous individuals. For example e-mails are sent to unsuspecting prayers pretending to come from eBay. Logos and the design of the pages look authentic. However they are designed so that you input private information that the thieves can use to take passwords and identifications. This something to look for! 5. Your opinion on the corporation’s greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses. Choose the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to take maximum advantage of its strengths, and the strategy or tactic the reparation should select to fix its most significant weakness. Justify your choices. EBay’s technology, it couldn’t cope with the volume Of traffic and desperately needed to be upgraded. The site kept on crashing, and some auctions were taking as long as 24 hours to upload. The owners tried to shut things down for a while. Bay is the leading global brand for online auctions. The company is a giant marketplace used by more than 1 00 million people to buy and sell all manner of things to e ach other. Pierre Midair, a French entrepreneur, was just 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to rite the original computer code for what eventually became an Internet misbrand. The brand has grown tremendously. The organizations works tremendously hard to overcome fraud. However, the eBay model does leave itself open to a number of fraudulent activities. Often the company deals with such activities very quickly. Fraud includes counterfeit goods being marketed to unsuspecting (and suspecting! ) prayers. Other forms of theft could include the redistribution of stolen goods. It should be pointed out that fraud and theft are problems with individuals, not eBay. The weakness is that unscrupulous individuals can exploit the ICC business model. Y over the decade or so since its conception. 6. Determine the company’s resources, capabilities, and core competencies. In Order for the business to be successful, workers with certain skills, or capabilities, must be available. This is important for two reasons. First wages are usually the highest expense of a business, as much as 70% of the budget of an organization with low capital requirements (e. G. An accounting or legal firm). Second, capable workers may not always be available, which may lead to the issue of outsourcing, as discussed in a following section. Many would argue that, originally, eBay’s core competency was their innovative idea to offer auction services online as well as the technology to do so. However, auction services are now easily duplicated and are available on many different sites hoping to cash in on the eBay phenomenon. Today, eBay’s core competency seems to be their name recognition and high website traffic. The large amount of traffic to eBay brings a large number Of sellers and buyers together so that an extremely large array of common and rare products can be found for purchase. Although nearly anyone today can copy Bay’s functionality, few have the mar keting resources and well know name to really draw a crowd. 7. Analyze the company’s value chain to determine where they can create using the resources, capabilities, and core competencies discussed above. Porter’s basic model describes an industrial organization buying raw materials and transforming these into physical products. It can be extended to someone who buys a product and makes changes thus adding â€Å"value† to the item for resale. (Such as an airbrush artist who buys a tee-shirt, sprays on a design and then sells the result for higher than the cost of the T-Shirt. If you want to be part Of the â€Å"value chain† you need only find a product to create, and being buying the materials to produce it. Board members of EBay usually paint a pretty picture for their earnings forecasts. The reality is that competitors are multiplying and those that use free as a business model may legitimately capture market share. In order for EBay to remain on top o f the internet auction industry they need to reduce the price to exchange items on their system thereby increasing the value of their value chain. The direct result of this action will be much higher traffic and brand loyalty. Traffic can be motorized using highly targeted advertisements through Google ad sense or an internal advertising program. We will write a custom essay sample on EBay Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on EBay Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on EBay Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Italian Phrases for Your Day Out at the Beach

Italian Phrases for Your Day Out at the Beach The sun is shining, and you’ve just arrived at your seaside resort hotel in Taormina. Before you even reach your room, you’re already thinking about what the ocean breeze is going to feel like once you roll out your towel and lay underneath the big umbrellas lining the shore. Even if you’re just going to relax on your travels, you’re going to need to use some Italian, so here is a list of basic vocabulary plus a sample dialogue to help you navigate the beaches in Italy. Vocabulary Beach - La spiaggiaOcean - Il mare Even though you’re  going to the beach, you’ll hear Italians refer to it as â€Å"il mare - the ocean. Also,  prepositions will vary. You’ll say â€Å"Vado IN spiaggia - I’m going to the beach and â€Å"Vado AL mare - I’m going to the sea.​ Sand - La sabbiaShore - La rivaBoardwalk - Il lungomareBig umbrella - L’ombrelloneBeach club - Un locale sulla spiaggiaBeach chair - La sdraioLifeguard - Il bagninoBoat - La barcaSpeedboat - Il motoscafoPaddle Boat - Il pedalà ²At the store  -  Al mercato What youll do there Take a dip - Fare un bagnoTo swim - NuotareSuntan - AbbronzarsiRelax - RilassarsiSqueeze in a nap - Schiacciare un pisolinoBuild a sandcastle - Costruire un castello di sabbiaWatch the sunset - Vedere il tramontoSpend time with friends - Passare il tempo con amici Youll want to bring Sunglasses - Gli occhiali da soleSunscreen - La crema/protezione solareSwimsuit - Il costume da bagnoFlip-flops - Le infraditoTowel - Il telo mareBathing suit cover up - Il pareo/il copricostumeA good book - Un bel libro Sample Dialogue L’uomo: Il tempo à ¨ bellissimo, andiamo al mare? - The weather is really nice, let’s go the sea? La donna: Volentieri! Quando partiamo? Voglio mangiare sulla spiaggia, quindi devo fare la spesa. - Definitely! When are we leaving? - I want to eat  on the beach, so I have to do some shopping. L’uomo: Partiamo alle 10, allora tra due ore, e va bene, ti porto al mercato. - We’ll leave at 10, so in two hours and all right, I’ll bring you to the store. La donna: Allora, compro del pane, un po’ di prosciutto cotto, e poi della frutta. Che altro? - So, I’ll buy some bread, a bit of cooked prosciutto, and  then some fruit. L’uomo: Del formaggio, magari pecorino? - Some cheese, maybe pecorino? La donna: Perfetto, e non possiamo dimenticare la pasta fredda che ti piace cosà ¬ tanto, quella con i pomodorini! - Perfect, and we can’t forget the cold pasta that you like so much, the one with the little tomatoes. {a casa - at home} La donna: Non riesco a trovare il mio costume da bagno. L’hai mica visto? - I can’t find my bathing suit. Have you seen it by chance? L’uomo: Mhhh, no, perà ² qua ho le tue infradito, la protezione solare, i teli mare, il tuo copricostume, le mie pinne e la maschera! - Hmmm, no, but here I have your flip-flops, the sunscreen, the beach towels, your cover-up, my flippers,  and the diver’s mask! La donna: Non fa niente, l’ho trovato. Andiamo! - It’s okay, I found it. Let’s go! {in spiaggia - at the beach} La donna: Vorremmo due sdraio in riva al mare, per favore. - We would like two beach chairs near the shore, please. Il bagnino: Va bene, seguitemi Signori. - Okay, follow me, sir and maam. Note: The bagnino uses formal speech with the couple while the couple uses informal speech with each other.   L’uomo: Oh, Grazie! - Oh, thank you! Il bagnino: Se avete bisogno di qualsiasi cosa io sono là ¬ alla torretta. Godetevi la giornata ed attenti alle onde! - If you need anything, you’ll find me on my turret over there. Enjoy your day, and beware the waves! L’uomo: Aaah, si sta benissimo sotto l’ombrellone! Vieni anche tu! - Aaah, it’s wonderful here under the big umbrella! Come! La donna:   No, non ci penso nemmeno, io voglio abbronzarmi! - No, forget it, I want to suntan!

How Ford Motor Company Utilises The Marketing Mix To Influence Essay

How Ford Motor Company Utilises The Marketing Mix To Influence Consumer Buying Behaviour - Essay Example Ford maintains one of the most recognised brands in the world, creating brand recognition with historical emphases on quality and innovation. Currently, Ford is positioned under quality, with marketing emphasis on product in the marketing mix, utilising integrated marketing communications to give consumers the perception of product excellence, superiority and performance. Fortunately, global consumers’ having a high level of awareness of the brand makes it more simplistic for Ford to work on higher order aspects of marketing to build loyalty to the brand without having to concentrate on building brand recognition. â€Å"Ford is producing cars that critics and consumers are raving about† (Ritson 2010, p.2). However, how is the company able to establish positive perceptions about the brand and satisfy consumers so effectively to create such frenzy? This paper seeks to provide an explanation for how Ford builds brand loyalty toward the Ford brand. Various models of consume r behaviour serve to provide the necessary answer to this question. 2. Hierarchy of effects A considerable volume of consumer shopping behaviours are controlled in the subconscious and are not driven by cognitive awareness. In most consumption scenarios, â€Å"consumers are unaware that they are driven by motives† (Blackwell, Miniard and Engel 2006, p.216). This can complicate the process of building brand connection with consumer segments as consumers cannot always provide rational statements as to why they prefer one product over another. Because of this unconscious processing of consumer segments, it becomes increasingly important for marketers to understand the factors that assist in creating attitudes about a brand and what influences consumers about what brands to purchase. With a large amount of consumption behaviours being driven by instinctive or involuntary judgments, marketers must understand the factors associated with memory and cognition to create relevant and accepted promotional campaigns that build a more positive brand reputa tion. Figure 1: Hierarchy of Effects Model Source: Pauley Creative (2013). Hierarchy of Effects Model. http://www.pauleycreative.co.uk/2010/10/social-product-marketing-for-product-manufacturers-in-the-construction-industry/ The Hierarchy of Effects model indicates that consumers first build awareness and knowledge of the brand. The model illustrates that consumers go through a structured process that dictates how the consumer ultimately responds to marketing communications and brand, which is based on what they feel, think and perform (Pomoni 2010). The model illustrates that knowledge leads to linking and brand preference, ultimately allowing marketers to reward consumers for having conviction (preference) for the brand

Argument-Deliberative (4 pages) DIRECTLY addressing a specific Essay

Argument-Deliberative (4 pages) DIRECTLY addressing a specific audience who holds a proposition with which you Disagree) - Essay Example Perhaps, a rebellion against this standardized will open the door to the reshaping of our schools and the implementation of much more sophisticated and effective accountability measures.† (Marshak, David, 2003). He further adds that we need to reinvent education by teaching students how to be creative, which requires long term relationship between students and teachers. So the present system of changing teachers every 50 minutes should be stopped and teachers be appointed for one to two year to develop personal relationship with students. Students should also have common learning goals and individuals learning goals. Moreover, he believes that in future curriculum should include synthesis, problem solving, creativity, and analysis promote inventive thinking. Though some of his ideas seem to be good, it may not be practical one. In order to understand the hollowness in his arguments against standardized testing system, one should know how it functions. A test which is conducted in a standard manner is called a standardized test. This testing system gauges candidates against one another and a standard is fixed to assess progress in a school, aptitude to attend institutions of higher education and to put candidates in programs suited to their aptitude. These tests are designed in a special way that rules for conducting, questions, interpretations, and scoring pattern are reliable and conducted and scored in a prearranged, standard manner. United States enacted elementary and secondary education act, 1965 which made it mandatory standardized testing in public schools. In 2001, United States passed US Public Law 107- 110, which is also called ‘No Child Left Behind Act of 2001’, which binds public school funding to standardized testing. It consists of true- false and multiple-choice questions. Generally, it is a computer adaptive test. Some standardized testing have essay

Critically analyse the specific nursing care of the woman undergoing Essay

Critically analyse the specific nursing care of the woman undergoing emergency caesarean section,2500 words - Essay Example The anatomy and physiological changes referring to pregnancy will also be established, especially in terms of anaesthesia. My role in preoperative care, preparation of the room and equipment, as well as the positioning of the patient will be included in this essay. Body The needs of the individual patient in this case would refer to the operating room needs, with an operating room made ready, the assisting nurse scrubbed and gowned, and the appropriate instrument tray prepared. Informing the appropriate team for the caesarean section would also be essential (Murray and Huelsmann, 2009). Individuals requiring notice would be the operative assistant, the charge nurse, the nursing supervisor, the anaesthesiologist, the OR team, and paediatrician. Information to be transmitted would include indications, how immediate the surgery needs to be, the gestational age of the mother, major pregnancy problems, medications given in labour, and allergies (Murray and Huelsmann, 2009). It is also imp ortant for the anaesthesia machine and a radiant warmer to be set up in the OR. The roles of the nurses also need to be assigned. As soon as the patient delivers, sponge counts and instrument counts would have to be undertaken (Murray and Huelsmann, 2009). Post-operative care is also in order, after appropriate un-scrubbing procedures carried out. The patient is then wheeled into the recovery room, monitored based on doctor recommended intervals. Monitoring of bleeding and infection is also needed, along with the administration of due medications, including antibiotics and pain medications (Littleton and Engebretson, 2005). It is important for the nurse to participate completely in the nursing care of the caesarean section patient because emergency caesarean sections imply an immediate procedure which is threatened by possible foetal or maternal distress or any other issues or complications of pregnancy (Iyer, et.al., 2006). The assistance of the nurse is essential in these cases in order to ensure a speedy, safe, and efficient delivery. It would allow for the efficient use of hospital resources with the ultimate goal of achieving improved and stable patient outcomes. It is also the responsibility of the nurse to assist the anaesthesiologist during the induction of the anaesthesia as well as the monitoring of the patient during the surgery, mostly in terms of vital signs monitoring or any adverse reactions to the anaesthesia (Maaloe, et.al., 2012). Spinal anaesthesia is usually preferred over general anaesthesia for caesarean patients. Although both anaesthesia techniques provide effective anaesthesia during the delivery, spinal anaesthesia provides more benefits for both the mother and the infant. In a review by Krisanaprakornkit (2006), the author established that both methods proved effective in providing anaesthesia. For spinal anaesthesia, the surgery can be initiated sooner, however the risk of hypotension requiring treatment seems apparent in spinal ana esthesia. General anaesthesia also offers better postoperative control (Ng, et.al., 2004). In relation to other postoperative outcomes, including nausea, postoperative back pain, postdural puncture headache, no effective or definitive conclusion could be established (Krisanaprakornkit, 2006). Regional

Gender Discrimination Essay

Gender Discrimination Essay Introduction Gender inequality, or in other words, gender discrimination refers to unfair rights between male and female based on different gender roles which leads to unequal treatment in life. The term gender inequality has been widely known in human history but not until the beginning the 20th century has the transformation of gender relations become one of the most rapid, profound social changes (Wright Rogers 2009). And at the same time, the position of men and women were generally set. The growth of this situation has been obviously seen. According to a survey in America, females salary at work is 75% as low as males. Coming back to last century, at work, when men were paid 1 dollar, the amount that women received was just 58 cents, in accordance with the law in 1963 (Tran 2012) . And in Vietnam, gender inequality is shown in the difference between two genders in the number of babies. Statistics of Ministry of Planning Investment in 2010 reported that there were 110.6 new-born boys out of 100 new-born girls which was much higher than in the past. However, as a matter of fact, gender discrimination has made a big argument in society about whether the equality among genders should be encouraged or not. Regarding to this problem, American people seem to appreciate the position of women, meanwhile, the Chinese tend to think of higher power of men in life (Chang n.d.) Thus, this paper, with the purpose of reporting the current states of gender inequality, its impacts as well as the solutions to improve this trend, will give readers another look at this controversial problem. Discussion of findings What is gender inequality? Gender inequality is a social problem which causes unfair treatment in society between different genders. These dissimilarities are distinguished from biological factors, especially from differing reproductive roles in life (Reeves Baden 2000). This misperception comes originally from the wrong understanding about the position of each gender in life. Nowadays, the paradox that makes women suffer adversities and put women into unpleasant situation is seen in every angle of life. However, the method of gender discrimination in one place differs from that in others. For example, in workplace gender inequality accelerates when entering the job racing, not only the dissimilar salary, inequality at work is demonstrated through the differences between genders and the amount of money paid (Hsu 2012). In the aspect of education, in the past, men are prone to have more chances to go to school. Young women seemed to have fewer opportunities for higher education than young men (Dang 2008, p.25) Regarding to the reasons and the origin of gender inequality, it can be seen that Asia would be the place where gender discrimination has seemed to be a tradition. According to the General office for population family planning, the idea of distinguishing men from women came from the impacts of Confucianism and the awareness of people about life. Men were thought to have a duty of continuing the ancestral line. In that society, not having a son meant to be disrespectful towards the ancestor. Going on with this wrong conception, women are more likely to lose the role in community (Nguyen n.d.) How gender inequality affects lives? Initially, gender inequality has effects on the scale of population. According to statistics of the General office for population family planning (Nguyen n.d.), because of the discrimination of genders, the number of new-born boys and girls is unequal. To some people, the hope to have a son loses the balance between two genders. Unfortunately, this situation has occurred for such a long time, so the impacts of it in the population are rather huge. As report of Ministry of public health, it is estimated that, despite the attempt to reduce the fluctuation between the birth of boys and girls, in 2020 there will be 4.3 million men more than women. Minister of ministry of public health statement (cited in Phuong 2012), said that if this trend still keeps on going, it will lead to quite a few consequences in security and the order of society before marriage age of children because there will lack brides resulting from out-numbered new-born boys from girls. Now we can see an obvious consequ ence among the Chinese. According to a Blue Paper on Society released by the China Academy of Social Science, there will run short of brides in ten years because of severe gender imbalance among young people, particularly among under 19-aged people (Tang 2010). Secondly, the discrimination of genders leads to some problems in education. Education is an important tool, is the key to the growth of human. And no matter what gender a person is, he has right to expose to education like others. Chaudhry Rahman (2009 p.175), reported that there are many empirical evidences that, increase in female education improves human development outcomes such as child survival, health and schooling. However, lower female education had a negative impact on economic growth as it lowered the average level of human capital (Klasen 2002, cited in Chaudhry Rahman 2009, p.175). World Bank in 2001 stated that in almost all poor countries, there is a high trend of educational impacts of gender inequality. In poverty, girls are more likely to be influenced to approach education. Finally, economy is the field that is consequently affected, because there is a link between education and economy. The impact of gender inequality on economy is found through the number of male and female students in primary and secondary school which is negative (Barro and Lee (1994) and Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995), cited Stephan Klasen 1999, p.4). And they claimed that a large gap in male and female schooling may signify backwardness and may therefore be associated with lower economic growth( Barro and Lee (1994) and Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995)). And lets take China- a country which is famous for strong gender imbalance all over the world- as an example of modeling the impact of gender imbalances on economic performance (Golley Tyers 2012). As mentioned earlier, China is facing a lack of brides 10 years to go and this trend leads to the problems of women purchasing crime. Especially men in poor provinces now are exposing to marriage market and this situation makes the black market of selling wife on the rise, said the deputy director of the China Population Association- Tian Xueyuan (cited Tang 2010). Another economic impact of gender discrimination is unequal wages among male and female. According to Yang Juhua, a professor with Renmin University, the wages of women is much lower than mens despite the same level of position (cited Tang 2010). Tang also mentioned the chances to get a job of women are smaller and there is more likelihood of being refused on applying for jobs. How to solve this problem? Ninety-three years ago, people in some places in the world first officially celebrated the International womens day. In ninety three years, there have been a lot of changes made in terms of changing attitudes of people about the inequality of genders. Nowadays we are living in a developed world which is contributed by both men and female so why female have to suffer such that inequality which they dont deserve to? Generally speaking, this kind of inequality has existed for a long time and in every area of the world, no matter where it is (Chang n.d.). Now its time for the world together make this out-of-date conception fade away. To some extent, the Nobel Committee stated that we cannot reach democracy and peace unless we wouldnt give equal rights and chances for women have. For the sake of making economic recovery, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that promoting women to participate in economy and increasing their productivity is the key to economic growth because it will create an effect on the competitiveness and growth of our economies. (cited Sharma Keefe 2011). In the relationship between economy and education, people cannot underestimate the importance of education. To flourish the economy system, people have to make an effort on schooling. Regarding to the solutions to this, setting up gender-sensitive schools is a crucial step in making a nice environment for learning and teaching. Helping female feel more confident in studying, improving a gender-sensitive curriculum which reflects national policy on gender equality to instruct is also necessary (Clarke 2005, p.11) Conclusion From all the discussing above, gender inequality is obviously an urgent problem in the world. Despite the fact that its volume much decreases, it still exists and makes a lot of people suffer its consequences every day. And there are many reasons leading to gender discrimination which cannot be solved easily. However, with education and progressive thoughts of people, there are also reasons to trust in the future of gender inequality being stopped. Then, hopefully, people can live in fairness no matter what gender they are.

Transformation to Womanhood in Two Kinds by Amy Tan :: Two Kinds, Amy Tan

Transformation to Womanhood in Two Kinds For a lot of us growing up, our mothers have been an integral part of what made us who we are. They have been the one to forgive us when no one else could. They have been the one to comfort us when the world seemed to turn to evil. They have been the one to shelter us when the rain came pouring down. And most importantly, they have been the one to love us when we needed it the most. In "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, Jing-mei is a young daughter of a Chinese immigrant. Growing up she had to endure being raised by an overbearing mother as well as deal with psychological struggles within herself. She had to learn how to become a woman on her own terms. Throughout the story, her mother repeatedly pressures Jing-mei to be something that she is not. She wants Jing-mei to somehow become a prodigy child. She has such high hopes for her daughter that she doesn't realize the amount of distress she causes Jing-mei. Like all good mothers, she only wants the best for her child. Since immigrating to America, she believes that anything can be accomplished and she uses her daughter as her outlet to prove it. She continuously gives Jing-mei numerous tests to memorize bible passages and world capitals, and eventually coerces her into taking piano lessons, which becomes the prime focus of her 'perfect daughter' determination. Jing-mei reacts extremely negatively to this pressure. This is only exemplified when she states, "'I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I am not." She is forced to take a stance against her mother primarily because she doesn't want to be forced into becoming something that she is not. Jing-mei feels she must become her true self, a person whom she feels her mother is not to determine for her. Jing-mei feels uncomfortable with her mother putting so much pressure on her. She is on a continuous struggle within herself to find who she really is. She is constantly distraught over torn feelings of wanting to become her true self and making her mother proud. Still, as time goes on it proves to be better to go against the tide, go against her mother's wishes. "And after seeing my mother's disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die.