The Two Failures

Title of the short story : The Two Failures
Author : Unknown
Number of pages : 4

This short story is a real one. The plot tells the readers about writer’s (almost) whole life. The story starts when the writers was 5 years old and she had her long-waited sibling.

The characters of this short story were writer’s mother, the writer, Banu (writer’s younger sister). Ma is very affectionate to her daughters and she was very patient. However, sometimes she got angry when her children was naughty and stubborn. Her daughters were very lazy to study. They liked reading but they never opened math or science books.

The story began whe the writer was 5 years old and she had her sibling, named Banu. The writer and her younger sisters grew up together with their mother because their father was on duty in army. Both of them were very naughty and stubborn. They always escaped from studying at home. They never learned math and science. Although they like that, their mother was vey patient and never scolded to them.

As the time went by, the writer almost failed in her exam but her mother did not blame her. Even, her mother helped her study from the basic up to what she should get at school. Then, she could enter good college. When she was in the second year, her mother called and said that Banu had failed. Her mother did the same things as she did when writer almost failed. In the end, Banu became the best student who entered the college and the writer got good job.

Although the writer called Banu and herself as failures, but their mother thought that they were the best and it was just a matter of time to be better.

According to me, this story is very touching for the mother is very patient and I like the way she takes care of her children. Also, the children are very good and great when they know how to recover their mistakes in the past.

Ratih

Questions and Answers

Arfi

• Questions


1. Do you think that the way of writer’s mother in raising and taking care of the children is good enough?
2. How do the daughters think about their mother?


• Answers


1. I think that her way was good because although she was a single parent, she could make her daughters succeed in the end. She never blamed her daughters for if she did, she would worsen her daughters’ habit. Instead of scolding to them, the mother prefer to take care of them patiently.
2. I guess that the daughters are very proud of her mother because their mother could hepl them to recover their failures, aven they could achieve a great result.

Yudha

• Questions


1. Was the writer’s father was a good one?
2. Why do you think taht the mother was very patient?


• Answers


1. Because it was not stated about the father, but from the story I could aassume that he was not a really good father. I concluded it for during the daughters grew up, he did not take part in raising her daughters. Although she was in a dutty, he should still take care of them, even with letters only.
2. Because she exactly knew how precious her daughters and she knew the best way to raise her daughters well. She realized that she coud not be very strict to them because if she was very strict. Their daughter would be more stubborn in order to defense.

Rahmati

• Questions


1. Why were at first the daughters very naughty?
2. Do you think that a very patient mother is good?


• Answers


1. They were very naughty when they were atill in very young age. Their mother was very patient so they did not realize that what they did was wrong. After they grew up, little by little they understood that laziness was not good for them.
2. Very patient mother is good but she still needs know how to manage the patience. It is important to do so because sometimes children do not really understand if the mother stays calm. However, for me, patient way to take care of chidren is the best. When chidren do wring behaviour, it will be more impresive if the mother does not scold to them for the children can feel the guiltiness clearly.