Literary Devices in "Two Kinds"
Jacob Diehl, August 24, 2012
Setting
This Story is set in San Francisco, California, China town
Characters
The characters are Jinge-Mei and her mother they battle through out the story. Jing-meis mother wants her to be a prodigy in america because its the land of oppurtunity but jing-mei wants other wise
Plot
the plot of the story is jing-mei doesnt want to play piano but her mom makes her so she just gets lazy with the piano and when it comes time to play at the talent show she messes everything up, The exposition of the story is jing-meis mom wants her to become a prodigy since america is the land of oppurtunity, the rising action is jing-mei learning to play piano and her mom thinks shes doing great but shes really not, The Climax is when jing-mei plays at the talent show and she messes up nevery single not and she bows, the resolution is jing-mei and her mom make up and they go on with there lives and not talk about there argument.
Internal Conflict
The internal conflic of the story is Jing-mei not doing what her mom wants her to do and being disobidient, So her mom makes her do it even though jing-mei doesnt want to.
External conflict
The external conflict is when jing-mei and her mom have a huge argument about jing-mei not wanting to play piano, so during the argument jing-mei gets so angry she brings up her moms babys that died back in china
Symbolism
Some symbolism in the story is when the mom wants jing-mei to play piano it symbolises that the mom wants jing-mei to do stuff she doesnt want to do
Theme
The theme of the story is that the Jing-mei doesnt want to do what her mom wants for her and the family relationship is difficult and keeps getting worse, one example is when jing-mei messes up everything at the talent show and her mom blows up on her and she reveals she doesnt wanted to be preasured into doing anything and later in life they finally get a good relationship and understand eachother
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?
She sees the prodigy version of her she was angry, powerful she got willfull thoughs, it shows that she doesnt wanna listen to her mom and go against her. it relates to the title by saying theres 2 sides to her the one he rmom wants and what she really is
Two strong-willed characters are pitted against each other in this story. What went wrong in the relationship between mother and daughter?
The mother wanted the daughter to do stuff the mom wanted to not jing-mei so she argued and didnt try to do the stuff her mom wanted her to do
How have her earlier experiences shaped her ambitions for her daughter?
She had children that have died in china so the ambitions are she wants the best for her daughter and she wants her to be the next prodigy when her daughter isnt capable of doing any of that