Question

1. In the story, what causes the main conflict between

June and her mother?
O A June's mother wants her to impress their
neighbors, but June wants to keep to herself.
OB June's mother wants her to excel, but June wants
to be accepted for who she is.
OC June tries hard at everything she does, but her
mother does not recognize it.
O D June believes that she is a genius, but her mother
does not support her.

Answer 1

The main conflict in the story between June and her mother is due to her mother's high expectations for success clashing with June's desire to be accepted for her true self.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the story, the main conflict between June and her mother arises because June's mother wants her to excel, but June wants to be accepted for who she is. This conflict is an example of interpersonal struggle where the character faces an obstacle that stands in the way of their desires, creating tension in the narrative.

June's mother has expectations for June's success and achievements, which do not align with June's wish for recognition and acceptance of her true self. This mismatch of expectations vs. identity forms the basis of the conflict between them.

Answer 2

B. June's mother wants her to excel, but June wants to be accepted for who she is.

Step-by-step explanation:

This question was taken from the book The Joy Luck Club. The theme of the book is the complex relationship that exists between mothers and their daughters brought about by generational and cultural differences. In this literary work, the author takes the reader into the tension that exists between June (Jing-mei) and her mother (Suyuan). Suyuan grew up in China before World War II while her daughter grew up in modern day America. One factor that contributes to this is that whilst Suyuan speaks & understands Chinese fluently, she only understands a little of the American language whereas, June speaks & understands the American language fluently but only speaks a little chinese. As a result of this communication barrier, the intended meaning of words are misconstrued and lost in translation. This leads to subtle misunderstandings between the mothers and their daughters.

Furthermore, whilst the daughters think their mothers are naive, traditional & old school because of their functional inability to comprehend the American setting, the mothers are snappy & irritated with their daughters ineptness to understand the unique finesse of the Chinese language. Despite their differences, the mothers genuinely love their daughters but this affinity is dampened by the communiaction barrier between them. Suyuan (June's mother) wants her to excel, however, because of the communication breakdown between them, she cannot properly convey this to June. This led to June misunderstanding her mother's hope for her to mean that her mother wanted to 'change' her. This is the background to the conflict between them.

The cause of the main conflict is that Suyuan wanted June to be a piano prodigy (the idea which initially appealed to June), however, June has no such desire to be a prodigy or be thrust into stardom. As her mother increasingly persisted, she became frustrated that her mother should just accept her for who she is. At the climax of her frustration, June would vent out her displeasure by saying to her mother "Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius"

At the conclusion, we see June eventually understood her mother's perspective after she died. If their communication had been more fluent, many of the conflicts they had could have been avoided.

Hence, option B causes the conflict between Suyuan (June's mother) & June