Why Don T You Like Me The Way I Am?

Register to read the introduction… The author tries to meet her mother’s expectations at first. She decides not to respond to her attempt of finding her prodigy after seeing her mother being disappointed with her poor performance at her piano recital (Tan, 391). There is a moment where she has a shouting match between her and her mother when she cries out “Why don’t you like me the way I am? (…)” and it is implied that she doesn’t feel that her mother likes her (Tan, 389). It very well could be that she has a very deep fear in her subconscious that her mother will not like her unless she is a child prodigy. Eventually, she rebels and starts to disobey her mother and stops following her instruction as a way to protest her endless list of expectations. However, it is obvious that she still cares very much about what her mother thinks of her. This becomes obvious when she reveals what devastated her at the piano recital was her mother’s expression, which was a “quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything.” (Tan, 391). This demonstrates how much her mother’s emotions can influence her despite her determination to not be changed anymore. What the author truly hates is failing her mother’s expectations, not her mother herself. The readers can then understand the process in the author’s mind where she decides that she will just become an average kid in an immature attempt …show more content…
In the beginning of the story, it states that the mother thinks that anyone could do or be whatever they wanted in America (Tan, 386). Her mother’s optimistic attitude about the feasibility of achieving one’s personal dreams makes her put the same amount of high expectations in her daughter, in her own way trying to help her have a successful life. Her mother shares her beliefs with her and pushes her into trying many different things. This is how she shows her love to her daughter in her own way. Her response to the narrator’s objections to taking piano lessons of “Who ask you be genius? Only ask you be your best. For you sake. (…)” emphasizes her true reason for pressuring her daughter to learn new skills (Tan, 389). Also, with her stating that there are “only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind” reveals that what she truly desires is for her daughter to listen to her and regard her opinions as good advice (Tan,