Read the passage from “Two Kinds.” In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtains, waiting to hear the right music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air. 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. But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. “If you don’t hurry up and get me out of here, I’m disappearing for good,” it warned. “And then you’ll always be nothing.” What conflict is indicated by the underlined sentences? an internal conflict within the mother, who wants her daughter to be a prodigy an internal conflict within the narrator, who wants to be a prodigy but has not found the right activity an external conflict between the narrator and her mother over the pace of the narrator’s learning an external conflict between the narrator, who wants to be a prodigy, and her mother, who is less ambitious
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
The correct answer is: an internal conflict within the narrator, who wants to be a prodigy but has not found the right activity.
Explanation:
The passage from Two Kinds by Amy Tan reveals the narrator’s internal struggle between wanting to be a prodigy and feeling uncertain or incomplete because she has not yet found the right activity that would allow her to fully express her potential. The underlined sentences describe how the narrator envisions herself as a “dainty ballerina,” a “Christ child,” and “Cinderella,” imagining different ways she could become extraordinary and perfect. These images reflect the narrator’s desires to impress her parents and feel adored.
However, there is a sense of frustration that the “prodigy” part of her feels impatience, warning that if it is not allowed to emerge soon, it will disappear “for good.” The internal conflict arises from the narrator’s longing to achieve greatness but also the uncertainty of how to make it happen. This conflict is not just about wanting to be good at something, but about an intense pressure to perform and succeed in a way that will bring recognition and admiration from her parents.
Her internal struggle is not just about choosing a particular activity (such as playing the piano), but about fulfilling the role of a “prodigy”—someone who is beyond reproach and can never be criticized. This pressure to live up to an idealized image of perfection creates an emotional conflict within her. Her desire for approval and perfection clashes with the reality of not knowing what it takes to achieve this ideal, and the prodigy within her threatens to “disappear” if she cannot find her way.
This inner turmoil reveals how the narrator is torn between the desire to please her mother and the realization that the path to becoming a “prodigy” is elusive and fraught with emotional tension.