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Differences And A Brief Moment In The Life Of Angus Bethne

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“Only two kinds of daughters, she shouted in Chinese. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own minds!”(Tan). The story Two Kinds by Amy Tan and the story A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune by Chris Crutcher share many similarities and differences. One element where the two stories share similarities and differences is in the protagonist. In the story Two Kinds by Amy Tan there are many differences compared to Chris Crutcher’s story. Jing Mei is not very talented. Her mother signed her up for private piano lessons to try to push her to be a prodigy so she would have somebody to brag about. Although Jing Mei did not like this she still went but that doesn’t mean she tried. Jing could not catch on at all yet her mother continued to send her even after Jing told her she wasn’t good. With the mother pushing her this much it makes her very strict. She doesn’t really give Jing a choice. This also made Jing feel like her mother didn’t like her the way she was. “’Why don’t you like me the way I am?’ I cried. ‘I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go on TV even if you paid me a million dollars!’” …show more content…

They both weren’t very confident; Jing could not play the piano to save her life and Angus didn’t feel comfortable in his own skin. As she went to perform on stage in front of everybody she messed up one note, which turned into a snowball affect causing her self-confidence to lower. Angus was a little heavier set causing him not to feel comfortable in his own skin. People would bully him just because he weighed more than him but what really mattered was what was on the inside. Jing and Angus both weren’t very popular. Jing especially wasn’t very popular in her mother’s eyes because she wasn’t a prodigy. Angus was popular but in a bad way. All of the “popular” kids at his school would do things to make fun of him in front of the whole school just to embarrass

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