Literary devices in "Two Kinds".
Josiah Meigh, 24 August 2012.
Setting.
Characters
Jing-Mei Woo is the protagonist and narrator of the story who gets forced to play piano instead of being allowed to be herself.
Waverly Jong is chinatowns littlest chess player. She is a small conflict in the story because it causes Jing-Mei's mother to brag about her, saying she is better than she really is.
Mr. Chong or Old Chong is a deaf pianist who teaches Jing-Mei how to play. However, because of him being deaf he can't hear what her music sounds like and just praises her for playing.
Suyuan Woo is the protagonists mother. She forces her daughter to play piano because she wants her to become the new Shirley Temple and earn money. She moved from china after losing everything, including sevarel children and all of her money, because she heard of America as the land of opportunity where you could do anything you wanted.
Plot
Expostion- The narrator goes through her and her mothers backround. She tells of how she moved from china and about her mother losing everything.
Rising action- The rising action is displayed when the narrators mother tries to turn her daughter into a chinese Shirley Temple. She also buys her a piano and makes her learn how to play it from an old deaf pianist called Mr. Chong, and enters her into the church talent show.
Climax- The climax of the story is when the narrator fails at the talent show and makes her mother dissapointed. The narrator thinks her mother will have given up on her playing the piano but then gets in an arguement when she doesn't want to. The arguement results in the daughter bringing back up her dead children and the mother gives up on her.
Resolution- Years later, the narrators mother offers her the piano but she refuses. Her mother dies and she decides to restore the piano for sentimental reasons. She plays the song she played at the talent show "Pleading Child" and also the one on the opposite page "Perfectly Contented" until she realizes they are two parts of the same song.
Internal Conflict
External conflict
Theme
Symbolism
At the end of the story the narrators mother offers her the piano. She doesn't take it at first but eventually gets it restored to keep sentimentally. The piano is a symbol of victory for her because she finnaly shooke her mothers obsession with turning her into a prodigy.