Literary Devices Found in Two Kinds
Asia Bowie August 24 ,2012
Setting
This story is set in one of the largest chinese communities outside of Asia. The neighborhood they live in has a variety of amazing restaurants , shops , businesses , and religious snd cultural institutions. In 1849 during the Gold Rush Chinese immigrants settled in that area.
chinatown in San Francisco
Characters
Jing -Me , The mom , The piano Teacher . Jing - me was the daughter and she didn't like the fact that her mother was pushing her to do things that she felt she couldn't do . The mom was a firm but fair and her intentions were good . All she wanted was for her daughter to have a better life and not have to depend on anyone but herself. The piano teacher was the beginning of the actual blowout with the mom and the daughter.
Jing - Mei
Plot
Exposition : The mother wanted her daughter to be something in life and she thought the only place you could do that was in America . She thought you could be anything you wanted to be if you put forth the effort . Most of all her mother wanted her daughter to be famous in acting , Something like the child star Shirley Temple . Rising action : The mother took her to the beauty training school in the Mission District . The student that did her hair messed up so bad the mother said she looked like " Negro Chinese ". So she ended up getting a peter pan look. The daughter was very excited , she pictured herself a prodigy of many things. Climax : The mother made her take piano lessons . the crazy thing about these piano lessons was the fact that the piano teacher was deaf . The fact that the daughter didn't want to take piano lessonsand the teacher was deaf ruined her chances of actually being good at something , because she didn't try and the piano teacher was deaf so in his head he thought what she was playing was magic. The showcase came up and she definitely bombed it. Her mother was so disappointed she couldn't look at her or speak to her . Then one day the mother tried to make her play the piano again . The daughter waasn't having it so she blew up an toild her about herself . Her mother just broke down and walked away . The daughter said the worst thing anyone could ever say to her. Resolution : 20 years later her mother invited her over and they hadn't talked in ages so it was pretty awkward. Her mother hands her daughter a piano , which symbolizes that her mother forgives her . Even though the daughter didn't except it she understood and was happy thata her mother forgave her.
the main problem
Internal conflict
The daughter wouldn't tell the mother how she really felt , so in the end it turned into something it didn't need to be .
How she really felt inside
External Conflict
the mother forced her daughter to do things she didn't believe she could do and hated it
the mother forcing the daughter to work at being something
Theme
You should always try regardless because you never know until you actually put forth some effort. At the end of the day a mother will always love and forgive her child regardless of what they go through.
Don't worry about anyone else , just do what you can do and always try your best.
Symbolism
The piano symbolized her forgiveness toward her daughter .
the problem but also the solution
The mirror scene
The girl sees an ordinary face , the fact that she felt she could never amount to anything hurt and she started to cry. She felt she was a sad and ugly girl . She was so disgusted she try to scratch out her face on the mirror and by doing that she made high -pitched noises like a monkey . This relates to the title Two Kinds , in such a way as her mother , father and everyone else felt she could be something in life . Jing -me felt she could never be what they wanted her to be because she wasn't a "genius" .
How she felt about herself
The blow up
The fact that the daughter didn't want to be disrespectful to her her mother and tell her she really felt built up inside and sooner or later it was oing to come out. The mother kept nagging her about being somebody just made it worse. Eventually , the daughter couldn't take it anymore and just blew up oon her mother and told her how she really felt.
she felt suffocated
Before Jing - Me
Earlier in life , when her mother lived in china ; she had kids , a whole family. She lost everything so she just wanted the best for her daughter . She felt things could get so much better if her daughter was famous . She wanted a better life , she didn't want her to struggle nor her daughter. The mother never regreted anything.