Literary Devices Found in Two Kinds
Frank Raffa 8/24/11
Setting
This story takes place in a chinatown in San Francisco, California.
Characters
Narrator- The story is told in her point of view. Mother- She is really hard on her daughter (the narrator) and wants her to become a child star.
Plot
This story is about an immigrant mother from china who wants her daughter to be famous. But as time goes on the daughter rebels and doesnt listen to her mother anymore and it causes a lot of conflict.Exposistion- Mother comes to america from chinaRising action- She pushes her daughter to to become famous by making her do paino lessonsClimax- The daughter plays terribly at the talent show and greatly dissapoints her motherFalling action- The mother and daughter get into a big argumentResolution- The mother gives her daughter the piano she used to practice with.
Internal Conflict
There is alot of internal conflict between both the mother and daughter. The mother just desperately wants her daughter to be talented in something because they are living in America. The daughter feels like her mom is being to strict on her and pushing her to hard. She knows shes not good at much but still wants to make an attempt to make her mother happy.
External Conflict
The Mother and Daughter are constanly arguing over weather or not the daughter should be a prodigy. The mother wants it so she can be rich and have nice things but the daughter doesnt want to chnage who she is. The daughter brings up a dark memory from her mother's past that saddens her greatly.
Theme
There are two kinds of people in the main character: the one that the mother sees and the one that she shes herself. She strives to be herself while her mother is trying to make her out to be something she's not or ever will be. This story is also an example of a non-succesful mother-daughter relationship.
Symbolism
The piano that the mother bought for the daughter is symbolism of both conflict and forgiveness. Through out the story the daughter is forced to practice the piano but she rebels which causes her mom to be very dissapointed and the daughter snaps at her. Years later the mom gives her daughter the piano as forgiveness to what he daughter said about her other children.
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 herself and starts crying because she thinks she is just an ordinary girl. But when she looks back up she sees the prodigy part of herslef which is angry, powerful and fierce. This shows the breaking point in the narrator who starts to rebel to her mother. It relates to the title because the daughter changes throughout the story.
9.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 her daughter to be the next child prodigy so she pushed her to try things that shes not really good at. The daughter tries at first but soon realizes shes not good at anyhting her mom wants her to do so they start fighting about what they want.
Read carefully the parts dealing with the mother’s earlier life in China. How have her earlier experiences shaped her ambitions for her daughter?
Her mom lost everything in China so she wants her daughter to be more sucessful a=than her and live a happy life.