Two Kinds by Amy Tan

Summary
In Amy Tan’s excerpt, “Two Kinds,” nine-year-old Jing-mei faces pressure to be great from
her immigrant mother. Mrs. Woo watches child “geniuses” perform feats that make them
famous. She wants Jing-mei to become famous, too. At first Jing-mei shares her mother’s
hopes, but soon she realizes she may never be the talented child of her mother’s dreams.
She begins to resent her mother’s efforts. However, when Mrs. Woo watches a Chinese child
pianist on television, she thinks she has found the perfect activity for Jing-mei. As the story
continues, Jing-mei and her mother both learn to understand each other’s point of view.

Genre Elements: Fiction:

Fiction is a literary work of prose that describes imaginary events and people. Fiction
elements are character, plot, setting, theme, point of view, conflict, and tone.

Analyze Craft and Structure

Character and Point of View

A character is a person or an animal in a literary work.

• Character traits are the individual qualities that make each character unique. You can
identify character traits by making inferences, or educated guesses, about a character based
on how he or she thinks, acts, and speaks.
• A character’s motives are the emotions or goals that drive him or her to act in a certain
way.
• A character’s perspective is how he or she views events based on his or her experiences
and emotions.

Point of view is the perspective from which the story is told.

• When a story is told from the first-person point of view, the narrator is a character who
participates in the action and uses first-person pronouns such as I and me to refer to himself
or herself.
• When a story is told from the third-person point of view, the narrator is not a character in
the story. The narrator uses third-person pronouns such as he and she to refer to the
characters.

Note:
The story is told from the daughter’s first-person point of view. She uses first-person
pronouns—I, me, my—and describes her own thoughts and feelings about the events in the
story.
Critical Vocabulary:

1. lamented 4. indignity
2. reproach 5. discordant
3. squabbling 6. devastated

1. Why might a person who experiences indignity feel upset or angry?

2. Why might a famous chef feel that his or her cooking is beyond reproach?
3. Why might someone’s neighbors complain about discordant music coming from a stereo?
4. What advice can you give people to help them avoid squabbling with each other?
5. If a student lamented after taking a test, how did the student do?
6. What kind of weather might have devastated an apple orchard?

Marginal Questions:
ANNOTATE: Mark details in these paragraphs that suggest how the mother’s past
experiences might have influenced her feelings about life in America.
1. What a reader can infer from what was annotated?

The mother has come to America after experiencing great personal loss in China. It
seems that these losses may have fueled grand expectations for her and her daughter.
ANNOTATE: As you read paragraphs 18 and 19, notice and mark words and phrases that indicate the
narrator’s feelings. look for descriptions of how the narrator views herself or how her recent
experiences make her feel.

2. Why might the author have chosen to reveal the contrasting emotions of the
narrator?
The author may have chosen to reveal the contrasting emotions so that readers understand the
narrator better. In paragraph 18, the narrator still believes she has let her mother down—even
though her mother’s expectations are impossibly high.

3. What effect does this choice have on the reader?

The choice to include the shifting emotions allows the reader to understand that the narrator has
undergone a change and is maturing as an individual. The narrator begins to believe in herself
and is defiant—she’s no longer the person who will try so hard to please her mother.
 4. Why does the author use positive and negative descriptions?

The author uses positive descriptions to highlight the narrator’s excitement about the recital as it
begins. She uses negative descriptions to indicate when and why the narrator’s feelings change.

5. What effect do these descriptions have over the course of the paragraph?

The descriptions relate a change that occurs over the course of the recital. As the recital begins,
the narrator is captivated by the moment and feels positive. But then things change as her
performance falters, and by the end, she is aware of her failure. The author shows the change by
using descriptive words at key points.

Analyze the Text:

1. How are the mother and her daughter similar and different? How does the
difference in their attitudes cause problems?
Both mother and daughter are strong-willed. The mother is more idealistic, believing that all things
are possible. The daughter is more realistic, believing that one must accept restrictions in real life.
The daughter believes she can never meet her mother’s expectations, and the mother is angry
because the daughter refuses to try.

2. In this story, conflict, or a struggle between the characters, results when a mother
pushes her daughter to succeed. Is there a winner in this conflict? Explain.
The mother never achieves the life she wants for her daughter, and the daughter doesn’t develop the
self-esteem she might have had if she had followed her mother obediently.

3. Should the narrator’s mother have pushed the daughter as she did?
The mother pushed her daughter too hard. The mother’s efforts backfired. Her daughter believed
she would never be good enough and stopped trying.