Types of Conflict
In “Two Kinds,” Jing-mei and her mother keep arguing about piano, tests, and becoming a “prodigy.” According to the chart, what external conflict type is this?
What is Character vs. Family?
“The Jacket” isn’t just about clothing. In one short phrase, what is the main problem the narrator struggles with because of the jacket?
What is his shame / low self-image or how he sees himself as less because of his appearance and poverty?
This plot word means the beginning of a story, where we meet the characters and learn the setting.
What is the exposition?
In “The Jacket,” which topic from the chart fits best:
“Shame and self-image”
“Parent–child conflict”
“Racism”?
What is “Shame and self-image”?
In “The Jacket,” the narrator feels ugly, ashamed, and “not good enough” because of his coat and struggles to feel confident in who he is. Which internal conflict type from the chart fits best?
What is Self-Acceptance Conflict?
In “Two Kinds,” the piano lessons are part of a bigger struggle. What is the larger issue Jing-mei and her mother are really fighting about?
What is who gets to decide Jing-mei’s identity and future (her mother’s American Dream vs. Jing-mei’s own choices)?
In “Two Kinds,” what event is the climax of the story?
What is the piano recital and the big argument afterward?
In “Two Kinds,” Jing-mei feels a mix of anger and hurt after the piano recital. Using the emotion wheel, name one specific emotion she might be feeling (for example: “humiliated,” “resentful,” “inadequate,” etc.).
What is any reasonable choice like humiliated, resentful, inadequate, ashamed, frustrated?
In “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior battles strong feelings of fear, guilt, and shame when he is in the van with his father and when he throws up at the party. Which internal conflict type is this?
What is Emotional Conflict?
In “Fiesta, 1980,” the story is told through Yunior’s carsickness and the party. What is the deeper situation in his family that the story is really showing us?
What is that his father is controlling / abusive and cheating, and the family is trying to act normal while dealing with fear and secrets?
In “The Jacket,” name one event in the rising action that shows how the jacket affects the narrator’s daily life.
What is any of these: he feels embarrassed at school, believes kids avoid him, thinks girls won’t like him, or blames the jacket for bad grades.
Which two topics from the chart best match “Fiesta, 1980”? Choose from: “Parent–child conflict,” “Immigrant experience,” “Gender expectations,” “Appearance.”
What are “Parent–child conflict” and “Immigrant experience”?
In “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior is expected to respect and obey his father and keep quiet about the affair, even though he knows it’s wrong and it hurts his mother.
Which external conflict type from the chart describes this clash between his beliefs and his family’s cultural expectations?
What is Character vs. Culture?
Two of the stories center on a narrator who feels like they are constantly failing expectations. Name those two stories and briefly say whose expectations they feel they’re failing.
What are “The Jacket” (he feels he’s failing socially/academically and blames himself and his poverty) and “Two Kinds” (Jing-mei feels she’s failing her mother’s expectations of being a prodigy)?
In “Fiesta, 1980,” what do we learn in the exposition about Yunior’s situation (name two things)?
What is that his family is driving to a party in the Bronx and that he always gets carsick in his father’s van (and Papi gets mad about it)?
In “The Jacket,” when the narrator blames the coat for everything, which topic and which emotion from the charts fit best together for him? (Example format: “Shame and self-image” + “inadequate.”)
What are “Shame and self-image” + an emotion like inadequate, embarrassed, insecure, rejected?
In “The Jacket,” the narrator:
feels ashamed and not confident in himself, and
also struggles against poverty and life conditions he can’t control.
Name one internal and one external conflict type that fit these struggles.
What are Self-Acceptance Conflict (internal) and Character vs. Circumstance (external)?
Imagine you had to explain this unit to someone who has never read the stories. In one sentence, say what these three stories together are really about, without mentioning jackets, pianos, or vans.
What is something like: “They’re really about how teenagers try to figure out who they are while dealing with family pressure, cultural expectations, and feeling not good enough”?
Pick one story and identify its exposition and resolution in one short sentence each.
Exposition: he gets the ugly green jacket from his mom instead of the cool one he wanted. Resolution: he looks back and realizes how much the jacket shaped his feelings about himself during that time.
All three narrators feel pressure but react with different emotions. Name one topic that connects all three stories (for example: “family expectations,” “insecurity and validation,” or “appearance”) and give one specific emotion word from the wheel that at least two narrators share.
What is “Family expectations” or “Insecurity and validation” as the topic, and an emotion like anxious, ashamed, frustrated, or overwhelmed, which applies to at least two narrators?