Tone
Not to be confused with Mood or Atmosphere (which are evoked through setting and description), Tone is the attitude or emotional outlook an author brings to a story and its characters. Tone may range in attitude from humorous to serious, from satirical to reverent, from detached to intimate. Tone may also change during the course of a story.
  • How would you describe the overall tone of 'Two Kinds'?
  • Does it ever change?
  • At what point in the story does it shift?
Humor
The magic of the first part of the story comes largely from Ms. Tan's rich language, sense of humor and comic images. Jing Mei Woo, the narrator tells the story in her own voice. Appropriately the language is conversational, even confessional and intimate. Jing Mei has a good sense of humor, which carries throughout the story until the climactic moment when there is a definite change of tone to a sadder mood. Overall, however, the prose has a happy spirit, and it is clear that the narrator enjoys telling her story.

Similes to make you smile
Can you find examples of Amy Tan's use of similes for humorous effect in the story?

Remember that a simile is a comparison using like or as.

e.g. "He slept like a log" or "She was as white as a ghost"
How does Jing Mei describe Old Lady Chong? (she uses two similes to do this: one to describe to her smell and one to describe her skin)
like a baby that
 
 
skin like
How does Jing Mei describe her own piano playing?
like a cat
 
How does Jing Mei describe the people who come to watch her play piano?
like gawkers
 
Turning point
The Turning Point of a story is that event after which a character and that character's situation and outlook on life are irreversibly changed. It is often the climax of the story, though not necessarily.
  • What is the Turning Point of 'Two Kinds'?

  • What images of 'the other kind' of Chinese daughter does Amy Tan present us with before and after the recital to bracket and heighten the effect of Jing Mei's failure and humiliation?

  • What does Jing Mei say and do to shame her mother even further after the recital? Do you think Jing Mei later regretted these things? Is this another kind of turning point in the story?

  • How does the tone of the story change after the recital? What are some details and events in the second stage of the story that signal this change? What changes does Jing Mae undergo before the story ends?

  • What is the significance of Jing Mei's realization during her recital that the song she was playing actually had two parts?

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Contents ••• Title Page ••• The author ••• Pre-story ••• In-story ••• Exercises ••• Follow-up