Despite this pressure, Jing Mei actually wants her mother to proud of her and desires a healthy mother-daughter relationship. She even allows herself to be filled with a sense that she would soon be perfect (Tan 1). So, Jing Mei buys into her mother's goals and expectations and is just as excited as her mother, maybe even more so. "My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk, or to clamor for anything" (Tan 1). Unfortunately, when Jing Mei's mother tries to make her into a Chinese Shirley Temple, she tries, but falls short (Tan 1). Then, when her mother thinks she can be intellectually astute and tests her intelligence with articles from magazines she collects at the houses she cleans (Tan 2), she again is unable to meet her mother's expectations. Between the disappointment in Jing Mei's mother's face and her own perceived failure, Jing Mei feels a loss of pride and confidence, and something inside of her begins to die (Tan 2). Jing Mei experiences the same feelings of disappointment that her mother experienced with the loss of her parents and children, but Jing Mei's mother is so focused on trying to make her a prodigy that she fails to recognize that it does not matter where they live. These feelings of disappointment and hopelessness can exist in both China and America. .
Although Jing Mei is a child, she recognizes how her failures are affecting her mother, but her mother does not recognize the same in Jing Mei. This is because she is so focused on her daughter making her look good in front of her friends that she fails to notice the changes going on emotionally with Jing Mei. In the famous quote by Carol Tuttle, it says, "Rebellion is a sign of a child fighting to be seen as who they are." Jing Mei's dreams of being a prodigy are impatient. "If you don't hurry up and get out of here, I'm disappearing for good, it warned.