Two Kinds Amy Tan---The Joy Luck Club Lives of four women and their American-born

daughters told from seven different voices (mothers and daughters):what is the role of different voices?

Conflicts between mothers and daughters: Mothers:emigrated to the US. , hopes, ambition,success, Chinese

Daughters: American-born, views of their mothers, away from tradition, modern

Conflict Very often, the plot starts from a significan

t conflict. The conflict sets the plot of the story in mo

tion. It retains the reader’s attention, builds the s

uspense of the work and arouse the expectation for the events that are to follow.

Plot A plot is the deliberately arranged sequence of

interrelated events that constitute the basic narrative structure of a novel or a short story.

The plot contains three parts: Beginning, middle, and end.

It often moves through five stages:

exposition, rising action, crisis / climax, falling action, resolution.

Plot The exposition is the beginning section in which the

author provides necessary background information In the rising action, the conflict developed gradually and

intensified. The crisis is that the moment at which the plot reaches

its point of greatest emotional intensity. After the crisis, the tension subsides and the plot moves

towards its conclusion. The resolution records the outcome of the conflict and

establishes new stability. .

Plot A finely worked out plot is more than just a

sequence of happening. Often it tells of an epiphany:some moment

of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character’s life, or view of life, is greatly altered.

The theme of the story While the plot tells what happens in the story, the

theme shows what the story is about. The theme of a story is the general meaning, the

central and dominating idea that unifies and controls the total work.

The theme of Two Kinds The mother’s attempt to change her daughter into a

prodigy and the daughter’s resistance to such change represent a bittersweet relationship between mother and daughter and a sharp conflict between two generations and two cultures.

The organization of the text Part 1(1-3): Beginning of the story:The mother

placed high hope on the daughter. Q: Why she placed high hope on the girl? Part 2 (4-76): The conflict between the mother

and the girl—6 subsections Part 3 (77-93): The end of the story ---2 subsections

Subsections Subsection 1(4-11):Mother’s attempt to

change the daughter into a prodigy failed. Subsection 2 (12-20): Mother was trying

very hard to train the daughter to be a genius.

Subsection 3 (21-28):While watching a Chinese girl playing the piano, mother decided that her daughter learn it too.

Subsections Subsection 4 (29-46): The girl started to

play the piano, but she hated it and decided to quit when hearing her mother using her to brag.

Subsection 5 (47-60): The girl made a mess of her performance.

Subsection 6 (61-76): The conflict reached its climax.

Conflict Subsection 1: (Para.9)I pictured this prodigy part of

me as many different images. Subsection 2: (Para. 18) something inside of me

began to die. I hated the test. Subsection 3: Subsection 4: (Para. 46) I was determined to put a

stop to her foolish pride. Subsection 5: (Para. 60) before the storm. Subsection 6: (Para. 73) The awful side of me

surfaced.

Subsections Subsection 1(77-89): The clash between

the mother and the girl subsided. Subsection 2 (90-93): The girl’ epiphany of

what her mother had left her.