Literary Devices in "Two Kinds"
Darius Wigginton 8/24/12
Setting
This story takes place in a small part of San Fransico, California in a town called Chinatown.
Characters
The characters are Jing Mei Woo, mother, Mr.Chong, Waverly, and Father
Plot
Exposition=Jing mei Woo talkes about her mother thinking America is a place of dreams and how she wants Jing to be a prodogy.Rising Action=When Jing's mom makes her practice the piano every day for 2 hours then brags when she hasent even seen her play.Climax=when Jing fais at the piano in front of the school, then Jing and her mom get in a huge fight.Resolution=Jing gets the piano that her mom bought her when she was a little girl.
Internal Conflict
Jing was stuggleing on the inside because of her mom herassing her to be something she isnt.The mom was stuggleing because she wanted her daughter to be famous but Jing would try at all.
External Conflict
The external conflict was when the mom wanted Jing to pratice more and Jing wanted to watch television so they started yelling and Jing talked about how she wished to be one of the babies her mom lost a while ago.
Theme
I think the theme of the story is you can do anything you want as long as you try and Ni-kan didnt try so she failed. The theme also could of been listen to your parents because when ni-kan didnt litsen she got in trouble and it took a while to make peace with her mother.
Symobolism
The piano was a symbole of trust at the beggining of the story. After Ni-kan failed at the talent show the piano was a symbole of appolagy to Ni-kan many years later.
In the first part of the story there is a scene in which the daughter sees herself in the mirror. What does she see? What thematic significance could this scene have? How does it relate to the title?
Ni-kan only saw a normal and her mother saw a prodigy. That is probable why the title is 2 kind because there are 2 kinds of girls in the mirror.
9.Two strong-willed characters are pitted against each other in this story. What went wrong in the relationship between mother and daughter?
Her mother wanted to beat the other family and counted on Ni-kan and Ni-kan failed to help her mother by failing at the talent show. this lead to a fight between them and there was a brick wall in between them for a very long time after the fight.
10.Read carefully the parts dealing with the mother’s earlier life in China. How have her earlier experiences shaped her ambitions for her daughter?
She had 3 kids and expected so much from them until 2 died and she put all the pressure on Ni-kan to become a prodidy and be better that if all 3 kids were still alive.