Character and Culture in Literature — Quiz

Question 16 • 26-27 - C - RUSD World Lit

Which excerpts from "Two Kinds” are examples of internal conflict? Choose two correct answers.

Answer

“America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.”

“In all of my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect . My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything.”

“Before going to bed that night, I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back—and that it would always be this ordinary face—I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high-pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror.”

“My mother slapped me. ‘Who ask you be genius?’ she shouted. ‘Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!’ “‘So ungrateful,’ I heard her mutter in Chinese, ‘If she had as much talent as she has temper, she would be famous now.’”

“So maybe I never really gave myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at that young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different that I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns.”

Explanation

Internal conflict is a struggle within a character’s thoughts or feelings. In C, the narrator is distressed by her appearance and cries while looking at herself, showing a painful struggle with how she sees herself. In E, she reflects that she resisted trying to play piano because she did not want to become someone different, revealing conflict between her potential and her determination to rebel. The other excerpts mainly describe events, her mother’s hopes, or conflict between the narrator and her mother.

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