Discuss the conflict experienced by the protagonist in one of the short stories you

have studied for this course and say how it adds to the theme.

The novel I have studied in this course is Two Kinds by Amy Tan. The
protagonist in this story is Jing-Mei, a rebellious child that caught between two
cultures: the Chinese culture that prevails in her mother's home; and the
American one that prevails everywhere else. A great conflict in this story is
character versus character that is the conflict between Jing-Mei and her mother.
In this story, Jing-mei is not a child prodigy, and her mother wants her to be. Jing-
mei, the protagonist, wants to please her mother but she wants to be herself too. Jing-
mei’s mother wants more than anything to be able to praise her daughter to her friends.
She wants Jing-mei to be some kind of prodigy, just as Waverly is a chess champion.
Unfortunately, Jing-mei does not have the talent or dedication to become a prodigy. The
dream is not really Jing-mei’s. Here, the conflict between mother and daughter appeared.
The conflict makes Jing-Mei disappoint her mother by pursuing her own ends and being
herself. However, deep in her heart, she wants to make her mother happy, but she also
wants to be herself. She wants her mother to appreciate and love her for who she is. So,
this conflict can be linked together with one of the theme in this short story that is
different goal in life makes a family live in disharmony relationship. This is because Jing-
Mei and her mother have different dream. Her mother wants her to be a Chinese Shirley
Temple and she totally does not want to be a prodigy thus makes her does
something that hurts her mother so that her mother will give up on that dream
and let her be. It is because Jing-Mei wants her mother to accept her as she is.
She also wanted to please her mother but the conflict causes different objective
and makes their relationship tasteless.