Name: ___________________________ Period: _______ Date: ____________________

SHORT STORY READING NOTES

Title & Author: “Two Kinds” Amy Tan Publication Date: _______

SETTING

Time & Place: Sometime after 1949.

United States – Land of opportunity (integral setting)

Integral or Backdrop:

Dominant Mood(s):

Narrator (POV): _______________________________________________________________________

CHARACTERS CHARACTERIZATION: List traits and track development of character. Provide textual evidence.

Jing-mei Beginning: Para 1-13

(Narrator)  Excited – Hopeful to be special; likes the attention (para
8)
Dynamic  Immature – Equating Physical change with emotional change
Character (If she looks like Shirley Temple, she will be like her
para 4-5)

Middle: Para 14-

 Sad, Angry – Feeling failure, disappointment (“mother’s
disappointment” parar 14)
 Disobedient, Rebelling (para 14-15) “Filled with lots of
won’ts” “I won’t be what I’m not.”

End (in retrospect):

Jing-mei’s Beginning:
Mother  Chinese Immigrant (emigrated to US after 1949)
 Has had a tragic life
Static  Immigrant mentality (American Dream)
Character  Optimistic & Hopeful
 Middle:

End (in retrospect):

DRIVING CONFLICT(S)
(Internal or External)

External: Jing-mei’s struggle to find her identity vs. her mother’s

expectations:
 Jing-mei thinks her mother’s expectations are too high and that her
mother is pushing her too much.
 The mother thinks her daughter is not trying her best. The narrator’s
conflict with her mother’s attempts to make her a success pushes their
relationship to a crisis.

Internal:

PLOT

Exposition:

Rising Action:

Climax:
Resolution:

Denouement:

STYLISTIC TEXTUAL EVIDENCE & COMMENTARY

DEVICES (Pink Rhetorical & Literary Devices Packet)

Symbolism United States: Symbolizes opportunity; the chance to be whatever

you want to be
*The mother has a romanticized view of America, but this country
offers more opportunity than China did at the time.

Symbolic Significance of the title “Two Kinds”:

Figurative
Language
(Visual
Imagery)

TOPIC(S) EMERGING & DEVELOPING THEME STATEMENT

(Topic + Author’s Commentary = Theme)
 ADDITIONAL NOTES

Prodigy - a young person who is exceptionally talented or intelligent

Discordant - not having harmony; disagreeable, clashing sound
Lament - to express grief or deep regret