... vital in this story. Suyuan, Jing-Mei's mother, has always seen America as a land of hope and fulfillment wanting her daughter to have every advantage in this land of opportunity, she gave her various lessons, such as piano and acting, and encouraged her to apply herself in school so she could have intellectual excellence. ... Jing-Mei resented her mother's interference and insistence on excellence. For Jing-Mei's thirteenth birthday she gave her daughter the piano, and with that lessons were to be given. Mr. Chong was not like a regular piano teacher, "He was deaf. Like Beethoven!" (p....

• Word Count: 501
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... A Chinese Shirley Temple. This was the first thing that the mother thought Jing-mei was destined to be. The story begs that in the beginning stages of Jing-meis inevitability to be a child prodigy, that she was, in fact, excited to become the perfect image her mother had made up for her. ... -mei is going to be great at piano. Soon enough, her mother had scheduled her piano lessons with a man from the first floor who is nearly deaf. She hated playing the piano and soon figured out that she could be lazy and not play the right rhythms and notes because Mr. Chong couldn't tell the ... di...

• Word Count: 813
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Peter Pan. Next she wanted her daughter to be remembered as an amazing child from the book "Ripley's Believe It or Not". Than it was the piano lessons, her mother exchanged cleaning services so that her daughter could receive lessons. Her mother got the idea from the "Ed Sullivan" show when she saw ... this little Chinese girl playing the piano. Amy's mother pushed her so hard to become a genius because she felt that her daughter could do anything she wanted to if she tried hard enough. ... went along with her mother wishes reluctantly. Amy wanted to please her mother even though she h...

• Word Count: 1263
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... married, and they begin living together. When they are living together, Rose starts letting Ted make all the decisions. And later, as time progresses, when Ted asks of her opinion, she replies with, "Ted, you decide." After a while, Ted just makes the decisions, without question. Ted begins to see her as dull, ... . Jing-Mei plays practically the whole piece wrong, and she is ashamed. The families of the Joy Luck Club do not say anything about Jing-Mei's performance, and she assumes that she will be done with the piano after the talent-show disaster. The day after the talent-show her mot...

• Word Count: 1269
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored and I was" (717). Taking advantage of the deaf piano teacher was another act of defiance. Since he is unable to hear her mistakes, he is not able to track her progress. "If I hit the wrong notes because I hadn't practiced enough, I never corrected myself" (719). Jing mei becomes very angry when her mother brags ... ). She resents being forced to compete with Waverly. Jing mei despises Waverly to a point of developing vengeful thoughts. "And if I hadn't felt so bad, I would have pulled her braids and punched her stomach" (721...

• Word Count: 789
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... it made her think that she was "Such a sad, ugly girl!"[2], because she knew she would never measure up to these kid prodigies so instead of putting all of her energies into trying she would apply herself as much as possible not to try. From then on in the story every time Jing-Mei's mother ... would impose a certain test on her she would try to fail it as miserably as possible, this was also true for the piano lessons that her ... she ended up embarrassing herself and her family at the talent show that her mother signed her up for where she proved that she didn't know how to play piano...

• Word Count: 845
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School