After reading the first two pages of this story, I thought that it would be about a parent trying to exploit their child, which it was, but I felt so sympathetic for it. On the third paragraph of the first page, we learn that the mother of the main character has lost some close family members and their family home in China. With a past like that, which parent wouldn’t want the best for their child?

However, the more I read the story, the less sympathetic I felt for the mother and the more i felt for the daughter. She made her daughter try to play the piano, which I don’t have a problem with, but even though she played badly in the talent show, her mother shouldn’t be disappointed. Afterwards, I found out what the title of the story meant when the daughter and her mother got into an argument about her not wanting to replay the piano. The mother claims that they are only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who are not. Even though the daughter seemed disobedient when refusing to play the piano again, I still felt sympathetic towards her and not the mother, even to the end of the story.

I personally think that it’s wrong to exploit your child to better own life. The mother of this story should’ve just let her daughter do whatever she wanted to do instead of restricting her. Overall though, I actually liked this story because of the character’s relationship with her mother and how she had to put up with her expectations.