People are often stereotyped into groups by things such as age, gender, cultural background, and ethnicity. Even though these factors might vary, two people that have very vast backgrounds may actually have similar personalities. In the short stories "Two Kinds," by Amy Tan, and "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, two girls with completely different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities share some similar as well as dissimilar traits. Although Jing Mei and Maggie do share some similarities, in the long run, they have more contrasting components, like their different family life, self-reliance, and self-motivation. While the amount of differences between Jing Mei and Maggie are a lot greater, there are still a few evident similarities. Jing Mei was very young and like most other kids, she hated listening to her mother. Her mother "only [asked her] to be [her] best. For [her] sake." It took Jing Mei years for her to begin to understand her mother's decisions, and how she might have been somewhat selfish, but really only wanted the best for her. Comparably, Maggie always stood in the background so she wasn't used to receiving much attention. When Maggie found out that she was the one that was chosen to keep the heirloom, she "just sat there on [her mother's] bed with her mouth open. Looking at both Jing Mei and Maggie, their age and naivete played a major role in the lack of understanding of their mother's decisions. Jing Mei had also always rebelled against her mother because she didn't she ever could live up to what her mother wanted, which was for her to be a genius. Jing Mei always though that "unlike [her] mother, [she] did not believe [she] could be anything [she] wanted to be, [she] could only be [herself]." Her mother had such high expectations, that Jing Mei knew she couldn't meet, so in return she never tried because she did not see any point. This made her mother angry, and in the end it made her give up on Jing Mei. Similarly, M