What does the title Two Kinds refers to?

What does the title Two Kinds refers to?

The title “Two Kinds” refers to two types of daughters: the obedient kind and the independent kind. Jing-mei feels that she has disappointed her mother time and time again by being the latter kind and asserting her will again and again against her mother’s wishes.

What does pleading child and perfectly contented mean in Two Kinds?

However, after her mother’s death, she examines the song book and realizes that “Pleading Child,” is only half of the song. The other half is “Perfectly Contented.” This symbolically stands for our narrator. She used to be a pleading child, who never appreciated what her mother was trying to do for her.

What does the ending of Two Kinds mean?

The ending makes us reflect on the whole story and lets us interpret it in a different way. After her mother’s death, Jing-mei begins to realize what her mother had wanted for her. She looks back over the music and discovers something that she hadn’t noticed before.

What does the piano in Two Kinds symbolize?

Jing-mei’s thirtieth birthday gift was the piano. She “saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed.” The piano represents reconciliation between mother and daughter. Jing-mei took it as a sign of acceptance and she later realized that her mother had never given up on her.

Which of the following is an example of direct characterization Two Kinds?

Direct characterization occurs when the narrator of a story tells the audience what a character is like. A character in the story may state the direct characterization as well. In “Two Kinds,” Jing-mei is the narrator of the story, and there are several times when she directly describes what her mother is like.

What does two halves of the same song mean?

The two songs are different sides of June’s personality. She realizes that they are two halves of the same song later, as an adult. June’s mother arranges for her to have piano lessons so she can learn to be a prodigy. June does not really have much talent for anything else.

What does perfectly contented mean?

: feeling or showing satisfaction with one’s possessions, status, or situation a contented smile They lived a contented life.

What symbolic meaning do the titles of the two songs Jing Mei plays at the end of the story have?

The ending of the story suggests that both of these pieces of music are symbolically related to our lives and the process of growing up, with the titles being very significant in terms of how we develop and teh various stages of relationships that we have with our parents.

What is the moral of Two Kinds?

In Two Kinds by Amy Tan we have the theme of hope, identity, rebellion, responsibility, blame, independence and acceptance. Narrated in the first person by a woman called Jing-mei Woo the story is a memory piece and after reading the story the reader realises that Tan may be exploring the theme of hope.

What does the song symbolize in Two Kinds?

The story “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is a story about the journey from childhood to adulthood. Jing-mei’s childhood is symbolized by the song “Pleading Child” and the obedient child her mother speaks of, while her maturity is symbolized by the song “Perfectly Contented” and the type of child who follows her own mind.

What is the symbol in Two Kinds?

The symbols in “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan include a house (representing American prosperity), Shirley Temple (fame), the piano (prestige and hope), and songs (Jing Mei’s two sides). These symbols reveal the story’s conflicts, of Jing-mei vs.

What does the piano symbolize in the story?

More than anything, the piano represents the complexities of a mother’s love. The piano is at once an object of conflict as well as an object of a mother’s faith. While Jing-mei is initially buoyed by her mother’s belief in her abilities, she comes to dread her mother’s smothering presence in her life.