two kinds reader response

1. At top of p. 90, the mother encourages her son. My parents often do that if they think I'm depressed.

2. In the last paragraph of p. 90 the narrator states her mother brought up issues in the magazines about remarkable children. My mother used to compare my brothers and I to some of child prodigies and said that we can be like them if we try like them.

3. At top of p. 93, the main character's mother kind of forces her daughter to take piano lessons even though the character doesn't want to. I was once "forced" to take violin lessons when I was young, but I finally gave up violin in 3 years.

4. On page 95, the character's mother brags to her friend about Jing-mei's talent that she really doesn't have. I've never seen my parents ever do that, but I once overheard one of my parent's friend saying stuff like that about their child.

5. The main character is disappointed in herself after messing up her performence. I messed up once on a talent show performence once, and now I have stage fright.

6. In page 98, Jing-mei yells at her mother for making her what she is not. I remember being mad at my parents because of their high expectations.




I think similar events like this happen in almost every family at least once. Every parents have imaginations to make their children into prodigies even though they have other talents other than one specific thing. I guess this type of thing is typical because parents have high expectations on their children.