Literary Devices Found in Two Kinds
Eric Son 8/24/12
Setting
In China Town in San Francisco.
Characters
Throughout the whole story, Jing Mei, and her mother would argue with each other. Jing Mei & her mother belived that Jing Mei could become a prodigy just like her mothers idol, Shirley Temple the little actress. But Jing Mei did not want to become a prodigy because of all the hard work, so Jing Mei started to hate her mother.
Plot
Exposition- The family moved to America.Rising Action- The mom believes that Jing Mei can be anything in America. So the mom tries to make Jing Mei into a prodigy, just like Shirley Temple.Climax- Jing Mei neglects everything her mom says.Resolution- The mom backs off of everything she does to make Jing Mei into a prodigy because of what Jing Mei says to her, " I wish I was dead like them!" and then later on, the mom dies and then Jing Mei reflects back at what her mom tried to do for her and feels bad and then gets the piano and plays and realises that it was easy even though she didnt played in years.
Internal Conflict
Jing Mei was to shy to play in front of the audience during her performance.
External Conflict
Jing Mei's mother wouldn't let her be what she wanted to be, and Jing Mei would always neglect her mother. As a result, the two family members would always fight and the environment within the family would always be negative.
Theme
The theme of the story, "Two Kinds" is to be grateful of what you have and get.
Symbolism
This was the piano Jing Mei's mother had bought for her. Turns out that it was quite expensive, that shows that her parents truly loved her because of how poor her parents were. Also that her parents had hopes for her.
In the scene where Jing Mei looks into the mirror and sees two girls, one is her ugly side and the other was a side she has never seen, it was another side where she can see her true side. This relates to the title because she saw Two Kinds of her self.
The relationship started to slip because of how the daughter hated the way her mother would brag about her that wasn't true and then Jing Mei would constantly neglect her.
It shaped her in a way that makes her very strict and made her very determined to create Jing Mei into a prodigy, just like Shirley Temple.