SHORT STORY NOTES: Always provide specific evidence from the text. Include page numbers.
Title: “Two Kinds”
CHARACTER
Jing-mei
(Narrator)
Author: Amy Tan
Narrator/POV: 1st Person POV
CHARACTERIZATION: List characteristics and explained how they are developed.
Beginning of the text:
 Immature (young)- Equates physical change with emotional
change
 Finding herself/Excited about finding her “prodigy” (the thing
that makes her special)*She is like her mother’s “puppet.”
*Trace how Jing-mei’s response to her mother’s tests/expectations
change over time
Middle of the text:
 Angry about her mother’s persistence and her inability to live
up to her mother’s expectations.
 Rebels against her mother and refuses to play the piano
End of the text/In retrospect:
Independent “Asserting my own will”
Continued to not meet her mother’s expectations. It can be assumed
that she doesn’t try very hard. She doesn’t respond well to
challenges and setbacks.
She is regretful
She is reflective in the end.
Mother
Values: hard work, obedience, respect for elders
Beginning and Middle of text:
 Chinese Immigrant (emigrated to US after 1949)
 Has had a tragic life
 Optimistic & Hopeful
 Forward thinking
End of the text:
Disappointed but accepting.
Values: hard work, obedience, respect for elders
SETTING: Determine the significance of the setting.
Time & Place: Sometime after 1949.
What is the significance of the setting? United States – Land of opportunity (integral setting)
Dominant Mood: frustration, stress, anger, disappointment
PLOT: List the events in bullet form.
(Consider events from the Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement.)
Driving Conflict:
External: Jing-mei’s struggle to find her identity vs. her mother’s
expectations:
 Jing-mei thinks her mother’s expectations are too high and that her mother
is pushing her too much.
 The mother thinks her daughter is not trying her best. The narrator’s
conflict with her mother’s attempts to make her a success pushes their
relationship to a crisis.
Internal:
 She is frustrated with herself for her inability to find her “prodigy.” On
pg. 134 she reveals the fear that she may remain ordinary.
 Conflict between her social programming to be obedient and respectful of
her elders vs. her independence (her own opinion and her own personal
interests.)
Climax: Pgs. 141-142: She finally stands up for herself and refuses to go along
with her mother’s dreams; she deflates her mother’s optimism and puts an end to
her unrealistic demands. She tells her mother she wishes she were dead.
Resolution:
STYLISTIC
DEVICE
EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT AND PURPOSE
(Literary and Rhetorical Devices: irony, dramatic irony, paradox, juxtaposition, foreshadowing, allusion, figurative language…)
Symbolic
significance of
title
Line in the text: The mother states that there are “Only two kinds of daughters… Those who are obedient and
those who follow their own mind!” (142).
Abstract Level:
 The “two kinds” of daughter symbolizes the two conflicting sides of the narrator
 The phrase also suggests the clash between a traditional culture and modern American values
Figurative
Language
(Visual
Imagery)
Simile- Pg. 142: “…she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she
were blowing away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless.”
–Demonstrates that the mother defeated. The optimism/hopefulness has
been drained from her.
Simile: “If felt like worms and toads
of my chest” – Trying to express that
being disobedient. *Note: At the same
this awful side of me had surfaced at
Symbolism
and slimy things crawling out
she feels awful/disgusting
time she feels “good, as if
the last.” Pg. 142
United States: Symbolizes opportunity; the chance to be whatever you
want to be
*The mother has a romanticized view of America, but this country
offers more opportunity than China did at the time.
Piano: Symbol of forgiveness (143)
Symbolizes the faith her mother had in her.
TONE & THEME
Tone:
Theme:




Parents who push a child to perform may place a lasting strain on their
relationship.
There is often a clash between traditional cultures and modern American
culture.
Goals are achieved through hard work.
It is often challenging to escape from the past.
Vocabulary Word: Prodigy
Definition: a young person who is exceptionally talented or intelligent
Vocabulary Word: Discordant
Definition: not having harmony; disagreeable, clashing sound
Vocabulary Word: Lament
Definition: to express grief or deep regret