Question

Which excerpts from "Two Kinds” are examples of internal conflict? Select two options. “America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.” “In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything.” “Before going to bed that night, I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back—and that it would always be this ordinary face—I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.” “My mother slapped me. ‘Who ask you be genius?’ she shouted. ‘Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!’ “‘So ungrateful,’ I heard her mutter in Chinese, ‘If she had as much talent as she has temper, she would be famous now.’” “So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns.”

Answer 1

Answer:

The two excerpts of "Two Kinds" that are examples of internal conflict are:

C. "Before going to bed that night, I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back—and that it would always be this ordinary face—I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror."

E. "So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns."

Explanation:

The short story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is filled with both internal and external conflicts. An internal conflict takes place in the character's mind, for reasons that come from the inside. Usually, it is due to the character's self: difficulty to change one's mind, difficulty to adapt to a new situation, stress, fear, anger, and so on.

In excerpts C and E of the story, we have examples of the narrator facing internal conflicts. In C, she is suffering due to feeling ordinary, unimportant. There is no one telling her that; this is a notion that is in her mind. In E, the narrator has made up her mind to remain ordinary. Instead of trying to work hard and excel, she has chosen to not make an effort. Even though this is justified as a way to contradict and disappoint her mother, who wants her to be a child prodigy, it is still the narrator's feelings of self-pity and anger toward her own inability that lead her to make this decision.