The Prodigy

As a second generation Chinese daughter, Jing-Mei had ever thought that she can be a prodigy because of her mother's encouragement. However, after she blew her piano competition, her self-identification changes. She does not think that she can be a prodigy anymore and she only wants to be herself. The piano contest brings her two kinds of feelings: The raised hope and failed expectations. As for external struggles, it…

In the chapter, “ Two Kinds,” Jing mother stated high expectations for Jing Mei states, “ Of Course you can be a prodigy, to, “ You can be at anything.”( Tan, pg. 132) . Suyuan Woo, Jing Mei’s mother, friends’ daughters all have developed some special talent and they have accomplished things from it to make their parents proud. Even though Jing Mei wanted to achieve…

While understanding the possible meaning and creative process behind a piece of child art is no doubt important, examining the development of adult artists from childhood can also lead to important insights about characteristics that distinguish a visually gifted child from a child with normal artistic skill. This type of examination is done by Jonathan Fineberg within his introduction to the book When we were young: New Perspectives on the art of a child. In this introduction, Fineberg defines…

back to Scotland in the 1400’s. Throughout centuries, golf has been a game enjoyed almost exclusively by affluent white males, largely because club memberships are expensive and restrictive. That all changed in 1996, when a young African American prodigy erupted on the scene, changing the landscape and the culture of golf forever. Eldrick “Tiger” Woods transformed the game of golf by breaking down racial barriers, revolutionizing the stereotypical image of golfers, and annihilating fields of…

John Green's An Abundance of Katherines depicts a tale of a child prodigy, who throughout his entire life, has only dated females with the name Katherine. The story begins as the main character, Colin, is dumped for the 19th time, by a Katherine. Colin took this break up severely and in order to get his mind off of the breakup, his best friend Hassan decided that they should leave to go on a road trip. Symbols of love, relationships, and individuality are found widespread throughout their trip,…

“Mozart, he argues, ‘developed late,’ since he didn’t produce his greatest work until he had been composing for twenty years” (41). At this point in the chapter Gladwell is now arguing that even child prodigies need their ten thousand hours to achieve true mastery. While this may be true of some prodigies, there appears to be a great amount of successful children who have become household names without reaching the ten thousand hour mark. One recent example could be Grace Vanderwaal, winner of…

good at playing chess, who gains a certain amount of fame as “Chinatown’s littlest Chinese Chess Champion. In the story, Jing-mei’s mother told her “Of course you can be prodigy, too. You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky” (454). Jing-mei’s mother thought Jing-mei can be prodigy if you give her proper guidance. She thought Jing-mei can be the best while actually Jing-mei does not have such talent. In fact, Jing-mei did very badly on the…

are, this stereotype is not far from the truth. Such behaviors are observable in the stories and memoirs of immigrants’ children; for instance, Jing-mei of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds”. Jing-mei’s mother was so intensely set upon her daughter being a “prodigy” that Jing-mei was driven to destroy the relationship between them just to preserve…

The representation of Rave and Drug culture from the 1980’s and why it has always been associated together and how this sparks Moral Panics In this essay I will investigate how rave culture caused such a moral panic and why it was (and still is) thought to be so closely linked with drug use, especially the intake of Ecstasy. Techno music (House) and MDMA would both have survived without each other, but their marriage was mutually beneficial; together they gave birth to rave culture. Rave culture…

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…