The Significance of the Piano Lessons in “Two Kinds”

In Amy Tan's “Two Kinds,” the piano lessons served a different purpose for each person in the story. The significance differed in Amy as a child, Amy's mother, and Amy as a grown woman.
As a child, Amy felt she was being made into be something she was not. For her, the piano lessons signified her imperfection. “In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me” (500). She longed to be that perfect child her mother could love and be proud of, but Amy felt she could never be that. “And after seeing my mother's disappointed face once again, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and the failed expectations” (501). As time went on, the piano lessons became a way for her to assert her independence. After the horrible recital, Amy decided enough was enough.
I didn't budge. And then I decided. I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore. I wa...