Two Kinds

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1989

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Literary Devices

Anecdote

An anecdote is a short story that often supports a larger story. Amy Tan chooses to provide anecdotal evidence in “Two Kinds” through the placement of Jing-mei’s childhood memories as examples supporting claims she makes from the distance of an adult. Since she took lessons from Mr. Chong for approximately a year, Jing-mei has a plethora of anecdotes to highlight his incompetence: “He went through the motions in half-time. To help me keep rhythm, he stood behind me, pushing down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced pennies on top of my wrists so I would keep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had me curve my hand around an apple and keep that shape when playing chords. He marched stiffly to show me how to make each finger dance up and down, staccato like an obedient little soldier” (14). These individual scenarios add up to a scene that articulates how she discovers his handicap.

Antihero

An antihero is a main character who is not heroic and possesses some negative traits. Jing-mei is an archetypal antihero in “Two Kinds.” While she is the narrator and the protagonist of the story, she does not depict herself in a positive light. As a child, she is angry, willful, unkind to her mother, lazy, and unwilling to put forth any energy to change her position in life. Despite all evidence otherwise, her mother truly does believe her daughter can accomplish anything with a bit of drive and determination. Her mother’s method of parenting is not generally soft and cuddly, but her words and actions reinforce her faith in her daughter. Jing-mei, on the other hand, is defeated easily, and does very little to be the type of daughter her mother wishes for. When something does not come quickly for her, she gives up. She blames herself for her misdeeds, but that does not stop her from purposefully hurting her mother’s feelings. Even upon reflection, Jing-mei admits she has been a “disappointing” daughter.

Conflict

Conflict is at the heart of this narrative. The central conflict played out in this story is whether Jing-mei will continue to take piano lessons from Mr. Chong. Early in the story, she and her mother find themselves at odds regarding Jing-mei’s natural abilities, which they refer to as her “genius”. After some failed attempts at locating her genius, her mother fixes her determination on turning Jing-mei into a piano playing prodigy. Already feeling defeated, Jing-mei immediately revolts against this label, protesting against her lessons and, when she is forced into them, performing them lazily, without practice. The climactic scene lays all of their hurt feelings bare and changes the nature of their relationship for the next 20 years.

Point of View

Amy Tan’s decision to tell this story from Jing-mei’s first-person point of view of is deliberate. Tan uses “I” and “me” pronouns to signal that Jing-mei has witnessed these events herself and that the feelings and emotions in the story are her own. This is her perspective on herself in the present and the past, controlling and filtering what the reader learns about her family, herself, and her community. Jing-mei sets the reader up with a series of events that show her in a certain light (and not always the best one), as compared with both her mother and Waverly. If Suyuan, Auntie Lindo, or Mr. Chong attempted to tell this story or discuss the events Jing-mei presents here, it would be an entirely different story. An effect of the first-person point of view is that the reader is brought closer to the narrator and their individual perspective; this particular story, with its unique frame and use of memory, couldn’t have been told from any other point of view but Jing-mei’s own.