The setting of this story takes place in the Chinatown section of San Fransico, California.  The charecters live in an apartment in this area.

The main character in this story is the rebellious daughter named Nikan.  She is nine , and she lives with her strict mother and father. Her mother wants her to be a prodigy, first she wants her to be like Shirley Temple, but once that plan fails she wants her to take piano lessons.  Her piano teacher is a old man, hes deaf so he cant really hear her therfore she can get away with mistakes.

This story starts out and the mom always wants the daughter to become something that shes not.  The daughter always feels bad because she feels like shes failing her mom, and she gets bored with all the stuff her mom is making her do. Her mom eventually makes her take piano lessons, and the daughter takes advantage of her deaf piano teacher by not really trying.  When her mom enrolls her in a talent show, she does very badly and embarrassed her mom and dad.  She felt bad about it, but when her mom makes her keeps making her take piano lessons, she rebells. She says some really awful things to her mom that they never forget. Her mom eventually stops trying to make her into something shes not.  Later in life, her mom offers the daughter the piano, but she declines it until her mothers death, then she gets the piano restored and cleaned up. The piano is now a very prized possession to her.

The internal conflict of this story would be how the girl is feeling about herself when her mother tries to change her.  She feels like a failure and doesn't  say anything about it until later in the story.  She bottles up her feelings until she cant hold them in anymore.

The mother is always yelling at the daughter because the daughter does not try hard enough. The mom get angry easily and when the daughter does not try her hardest on the tasks she gives her, then she gets very mad.

The theme of this story is to not try to turn your children into something there not, but if your parents try to help you exceed then give them your effort.  Accept people for who they are.

 In this story the piano symbolises everything her mother wanted her to be.  Later in her life the piano is a trophy to her, and represents her and her mothers relationship.

When the daughter looks in the mirror in the first part of this srory she does not like what she sees.  She sees a failure, a dissapointment to her mother, and useless.  She sees this because of how her mother is trying to make her into something shes not, and how she is failing at it.

The mother and daughter are both very strong willed.  This is a bad thing in this story because her mother is very much wanting her to try to become something more, like famous or very smart.  On the other hand, her daughter is also very strong willed and is not wanting to change or do the things her mother is wanting her to do.  These two characteristics clash into a bad relationship.

The mother in this story used to live in China.  She lost her husband, her daughters, her home, and pretty much everything.  This has shaped hoe she is now and her she wants her daughter to be.  She wants her daughter to have a better life than she does and that is why she is so hard on her daughter.