Two Kinds – Amy Tan

Characterization

Quiz: Two Kinds

1. What city is the setting?

2. What is the name of the piano teacher?

3. Who is Auntie Lindo?

4. What piece of music does Jing-mei play for her recital?

5. What does Jing-mei say that finally ends the piano lessons?

6. What gift do Jing-mei’s parents offer her at the end of the story?

7. What was the second movement of the piece “Selections from Childhood”?

Quiz: Two Kinds

1. Whose haircut does Jing-mei’s mother force her to get?2. On what show does the mother see the girl playing

piano?3. What is the name of the piano teacher?4. Who is Auntie Lindo?5. What piece of music does Jing-mei play for her recital?6. What does Jing-mei say that finally ends the piano

lessons?7. What gift do Jing-mei’s parents offer her at the end of

the story?8. To what does the title “Two Kinds” refer?

Definitions & Types of Characters

Characterization: The methods a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character

Direct Characterization: The writer makes direct statements about a character’s personality.

Indirect Characterization: The writer reveals a character’s personality through the character’s words and actions.

Round Characters show varied and sometimes contradictory traits.

Flat Characters reveals only one personality trait. A Stereotype (Stock Character) is a flat character of a familiar

and often-repeated type.

Indirect Characterization

(51) I began to cry.- The action suggests her dissatisfaction with

herself and her mother.(50) “You look like Negro Chinese….”- While the comment is DIRECTLY

characterizing Jing-mei, the comment itself speaks to the abrasive, insensitivity of the mother.

Direct Characterization

(51) The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful.

(52) Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of an invisible orchestra.

Types of Characters

Round Character: Jing-mei – Headstrong (purposefully practices wrong notes) but wants to be loved (surprised when the recital goes poorly)

Flat Character: Old Chong – Always simply a deaf, old teacher who does not hear

Stock Character/Stereotype: Waverly – Jing-mei’s nemesis

Protagonist & Antagonist

Protagonist: The central character around whom the action usually revolves; the protagonist undergoes the main conflict – Jing-mei – the audience empathizes w/ her desire to be loved for herself and her rebellion against her mother

Antagonist: A character or force that opposes the protagonist and receives little or no sympathy from the reader – the mother – generally the audience recognizes the unrealistic mother trying to live vicariously through her daughter

Pathos: the quality of a work that evokes emotion – most commonly sorrow, pity, or compassion

Symbols:

(55) “…I was to play a piece called “Pleading Child,” from Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood. It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was.

(58) “It was called “Perfectly Contented.” I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but with the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. …after I had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.

Conflict & Theme:

Types of conflict – external (man vs. man, vs. society, vs. nature, vs. supernatural) and internal (man vs. self)

What type of conflict is present in “Two Kinds”?

How does this contrast with “Through the Tunnel”?