Plot Elements
What is the exposition, or set up of the story?
What is Mrs. Woo wants her daughter to be a prodigy in 1950s San Francisco's Chinatown...She is making her daughter try everything to become famous.
What is symbolism and/or metaphors?
Giving objects deeper meanings / comparing two things without using like or as...
Why is the story called "Two Kinds"?
What is that there are 2 perspectives -- one from the mother, one from the daughter -- as both struggle to relate to each other and pursue their American dreams...
"Of course you can be prodigy, too." Who says this? What is a prodigy?
Who is Jing-mei's mother...and a prodigy is a child with a special talent?
What is the conflict in this story?
What is Jing-mei struggles against her mother's wishes to develop a talent, play the piano, etc., be something she's not...
What is the rising action?
What is Jing-Mei starts piano lessons; cheats her way through it; and performs awfully at the talent show, embarrassing her family.
What does America symbolize?
What is the promise of hope and success!
“I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.” What type of figurative language is used here?
What is a simile?
"I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything." Who says this? What does reproach mean?
Who is Jing-mei? What is disapproval or criticism?
Who does Amy Tan allude to repeatedly throughout the story?
Who is Shirley Temple / Ed Sullivan Show?
What is the climax?
What is Jing-Mei yells at her mother for trying to change her and says she wishes that she was dead -- "like them" -- her mother's two dead infant daughters.
"Mother believed America opens doors for people." Which type of figurative language is used here?
What is personification? Also, this is an idiom (an expression we use in English)...
"I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air." What figurative language is this?
What is a metaphor?
The piano piece had this mesmerizing quality, sort of quick passages and then teasing lilting ones... What does mesmerizing mean?
What is hypnotizing?
What is the irony (the opposite of what we expect to happen) in the book?
What is, that Jing-mei stubbornly tries NOT to develop a talent to spite her mother; however, by doing so, she fails herself...
What is the falling action?
What is that Jing-mei's mom gave up on her daughter, so Jing-mei gave up on herself...for now?
What does the piano symbolize?
What is hatred and disappointment (in the beginning of the story), and forgiveness and her mother's belief in Jing-mei's ability to succeed in life (at the end of the story)?
"I felt as though I had been sent to hell." What figurative language is this?
What is hyperbole (an exaggeration)?
The piano playing girl has the sauciness of a Shirley Temple. What does sauciness mean? What figurative language is used here?
What is boldness, liveliness, or being sassy? What is an ALLUSION, or reference, to the child actress, as well as a METAPHOR (the girl is compared to Shirley)?
What is the point of view of this story?
What is first person point of view (using the pronouns I, me, my, we, us...)?
What is the resolution?
What is mother and daughter make peace; Mrs. Woo dies; Jing-Mei realizes what her mother was trying to teach her, and also starts to play the piano again...and discovers her talent (writing!)?
What is the metaphor at about the two songs, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented," about?
What is that both songs are two halves of the same song; put another way, the "pleading child" finds herself "perfectly happy" when she finds peace with her mother — and herself.
What is Jing-mei saying here about herself? “I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.”
What is that Jing-Mei is upset with herself; she hates that her mom wants her to become someone she isn't...
"I'm not going to play anymore," I said nonchalantly. Who said this? What does nonchalantly mean?
Who is Jing-mei? What is casually, in an uninterested way, or carelessly?
What is a possible theme of this story?
Some possible answers: a parent's American dream may not be their child's; we do not know what we've lost until it's gone (remembrance); parents and children struggle to find common ground, or peace, in their relationships.