Question

Read the passage from "Two Kinds.” "You want me to be something that I’m not!” I sobbed. "I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!” "Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” "Then I wish I weren’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother,” I shouted. As I said these things I got scared. It felt like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of my chest, but it also felt good, as if this awful side of me had surfaced, at last. "Too late change this,” said my mother shrilly. And I could sense her anger rising to its breaking point. I wanted see it spill over. And that’s when I remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. "Then I wish I’d never been born!” I shouted. "I wish I were dead! Like them.” Which conflicts are revealed in the passage? Select two options. an internal conflict within the narrator, who is frightened by the extremity of her anger at her mother an external conflict between the narrator, who is demanding independence, and her mother, who is demanding obedience an external conflict between the narrator and her mother over whether or not the narrator will continue to live at home an internal conflict within the narrator’s mother, who cannot decide whether to throw her daughter out of the family home an external conflict between the narrator, who wants to be the kind of daughter her mother wants, and her mother, who thinks that’s impossible

Answer 1

"Two Kinds", written by author Amy Tan, is a short story from the book "The Joy Luck Club" that was published in 1989. The story is about the childhood of the main character Jing-mei Woo and the too-high expectations that Jing-mei´s mother has of her daughter.

In this particular passage from "Two Kinds", Jing-mei´s mother and Jing-mei are fighting over the expectations and disappointments that both mother and daughter have of and from each other. It is important to understand that Jing-mei´s mother, having come from Communist China, and having left behind her former family, has not changed her cultural views and expectations. These she tries to impose on her American-born and culturalized daughter, Jing-mei.  In essence, the passage shows the conflict that Jing-mei has with her mother regarding these cultural expectations but also the impact on the main character when her true thoughts and temperament arise in the face of this impasse. Jing-mei never expected to have such anger and conflict with the views of her mother and she definitely did not expect to lash back in such a manner. The correct answers then are: A. Jing-mei did not expect such a response towards her mother and thus has an internal conflict and B. An external conflict as well between mother and daughter over the desire by the daughter to gain her independence.

Answer 2

The actual correct answers are:

A.) an internal conflict within the narrator, who is frightened by the extremity of her anger at her mother (1)

B.) an external conflict between the narrator, who is demanding independence, and her mother, who is demanding obedience