Literary Devices Found in Two Kinds
By Ryan Kennedy and Zac Smith
Setting
"Two Kinds" takes place in San Francisco during the 1950`s. They live in a small part of San Francisco in the Chinatown district.
Characters
Ni Kan and her mother.
Plot
Ni Kan`s mother wants her daughter to become a prodijy at something. She makes her daughter try many things like acting and playing piano. Ni Kan does not want to be what her mother wants her to be, so she does not try at her activities. This causes many conflicts in the story.
Internal Conflict
Ni Kan does not want to do what her mother told her. In one part of the story Ni Kan messes up in the talent show while playing piano. When she gets home she wants her mother to scream at her, so that she can yell back. Her mother is so ashamed at her daughter that she goes straight to bed. This causes an internal conflict within Ni Kan, because she wanted to be able to share her feelings.
External Conflict
In one scene, Ni Kan gets the silent treatment. In another scene, Ni kan`s mother tells her to turn off the TV and practice piano. She doesnt turn the TV off so her mother grabs her and takes her to the piano bench and makes her play. Ni Kan and her mother scream and yell at each other, because they are mad at one another.
Theme
We learned that in order to be happy in life, we have to be who we want to be, not what someone else wants us to be.
Symbolism
The piano in the story represents the life that Ni Kan does not want. She wants to be what SHE wants to be, not what her mother wants her to be.
Questions
She sees herself as a powerful and angry person. This is significant to the story title, because she sees the second kind of person that she is on the inside. The daughter did not want to do all of the activities that her mother forced her to do, so they eventually had a big argument and seperated. She wants her daughter to become someone important, because her other children died in China.