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A greater argument could be made for a loss in both parties, since both fell as a result of their exaggerated expectations. Words are poor expressions of a person's already corrupted emotions. Silence delivers an unspoken message. The contrary could be argued for both points though. Words are necessary when an unspoken truth is not enough.

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There was no winner because all though the daughter technically learned her lesson at the end, throughout the journey, the cost of learning was their relationship.

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""Pleading Child" was shorter but slower; "Perfectly Contented" was longer but faster. And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song."

Why are these the last few lines? What do they have to do with the rest of the story?

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When Jing Mei Too was young, her attitude towards herself and her ability to excel was diminished by her failures. She had the mindset that she could only be her and nothing more. As she grew up, she began realize that she could be more than just what she was, she could excel and be exceptional at something but she didn't always let herself.

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The piano embodies the conflict between the opposing wills of Jing Mei and her mother. Jing Mei's purposeful failure of the piano exercises symbolizes her anger about the pressure applied by her mother's wistful thinking. Later the piano symbolizes an olive branch of sorts as her mother offers it to her, displaying her relinquishment of the dreams that she forced upon Jing Mei.

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Neither of them "won" the conflict. In the daughter's childhood, neither of them understood each other-- the mother just wanting best for her daughter but not taking time to listen to the daughter while the daughter didn't understand her mother and why she treated her as such a disappointment. But even though the mother wanted the best for her daughter, she went about it the wrong way and the lack of emotional connection and understanding was what hurt their relationship. So although at the end of the story the daughter realizes her mom just believed in her, this doesn't mean the mom "won" because she went about it the wrong way

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We think they both kind of won. This doesn't make too much sense, but they both achieved what they wanted to . Jing Mei didn't really have to play anymore and got her way, and the mother kind of stuck it to her in a passive aggressive sort of way and made her realise the point of the piano

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"Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on if you paid me 1 million dollars!"

"I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations."

We are thinking about these quotes because of the insecurity that are expressed in them. Jing Mei Too is constantly feeling the pressure of her mom, and although she hates it so much, she still questions her mom's love for her.

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In the last two paragraphs, this is where the daughter learned her lesson. Through the piano and the music titles, the daughter was brought to the realization of that the mother was doing everything ultimately through love

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both hurt in the argument. Also, we said that we use words and silence towards others so it might heal our own pain.

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both hurt

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both hurt

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both hurt

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both hur

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both h

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were both

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were bo

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother were

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother wer

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother w

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mother

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her moth

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her mo

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her n

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her n

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her not

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her nother

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her nothe

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her not

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and her n

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too and h

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei Too

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing Mei an

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We thought that there was no winner, because both Jing

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The piano symbolized all of the things Jing Mei didn't want to do, even though her mother forced her. The piano symbolized the breaking point between Jing Mei and her mother.

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The black and white keys can be interpreted as two sides of a coin, complete oppisites. The piano, though, has them clashing against each other in one unit, kind of like Jing Mei and her mother clashed a lot. The piano also symbolised their relationship. They constantly clashed and when she offered it it became something else. Like a sign that she had accepted it and the two clashing sides flowed well. This further is showed by when Jing Mei plays again and has an easy time and thinks it sounds nice and flows.

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The songs initially seemed different but then Jing Mei realized that although they were different in many ways, they were connected. I think this could sort of relate to how Jing Mei and her mom had different dreams for Jing Mei but, ultimately, they both wanted Jing Mei to be happy.

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We think that the daughter won the conflict because she had the last word, and she didn't have to practice piano anymore after that.

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As a child, Jing Mei "won". She wanted to hurt her mother's "foolish pride" and stop being forced to conform to something she was not.  She did in fact stop playing the piano and her mother gave up her dreams and pride. However, in the postscript it becomes clear that the strained relationship that Jing Mei had with her mother was never fixed within her mother's lifetime. Jing Mei's mother wanted the best for her daughter, not noticing that she was blinded by her pride. Unfortunately she lost as well as Jing Mei in retrospect, making them both true losers of the situation. The Bible mentions several times that the tongue is like a weapon and cannot be tamed on this side of eternity.  James 3:8 says  "But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Jing Mei hurt her mother with her childish and naive rebellion serving as the poison for her tongue to hurl at her mother. The opposite is true as well concerning the nature of the tongue. Proverbs 12:18 states that "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Unfortunately, neither Jing Mei or her mother have the wisdom needed to repair their strained relationship and therefore it was never repaired at all. However, it seems that the postscript shows a change in the mindset of Jing Mei, a certain wisdom having come to her as she grew older. Thus, it seems that Jing Mei's wound finally healed after her mother's death.