They are fighting because they are rivals.
After doing some online searching, I've found that this question refers to figurative language. It is not an incomplete question, it was just missing the context for people to be able to understand it. Now that I know what it is about, I can safely answer:
Answer:
Simile.
Explanation:
In the phrase "Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed" we have something being compared to something else. Even though we don't know what it is, we know it is compared to burnt-out torches.<u> The comparison was made with the help of a support word, "like".</u> Its purpose it to attribute one or more qualities of a burnt-out torch to something else by saying they are similar. <u>Comparisons that use support words are called </u><u>simile.</u> They are a very common figure of speech along with metaphors, with the difference that metaphors also make comparisons, but without using support words.
Since Amy Tan's mother, who is a non-English speaker, receives a rude treatment from the doctor, it depicts a certain discrimination towards those who could not speak English against those who can whether an accent is present or not. It was confirmed when the doctor became polite to Tan when she spoke English.
I would do number 2 because that is what most poems do right
