The narrator of the short story is the main character as well. The story is about his experiences while trying to find his something to be good at. It takes place in his childhood, when he was 9 years old. He was living with his parents, brother and sister. Both of his siblings had found their ability to do things well, but he was just being reminded all the time that he was the boy who could do nothing. The only thing that made him remarkable as a boy was that he was the “non-ability-boy”. He couldn’t even be the traditional nerdy kid, because he didn’t have the intelligence which is needed to be. He didn’t have any physically or socially skills.
Trying to avoid losing his self-esteem, he walks on down the road of “looking for something to be good at”. He finds out that he wants to attempt music. If he only knew that would be a failure too, he probably wouldn’t have. One day his father and uncle bring home a piano. Our narrator wants to try this new hobby and starts taking piano lessons from an elderly lady from the neighborhood, Mrs. Patricia Chin. The center of the story takes place when they have their lessons together.
The narrator hides behind humor, a kind of self-irony. The piano is a monster and he is playing this monster with clanged, thumped and spasmed fingers. He has been a failure so long now, that he can make fun out of it. But his family does not see the fun in his new failure. His mother says that he is killing her and the father is losing patience in the boy by saying: “Everybody can do something”. The main character even gets the impression that his own teacher thinks of him as an idiot. But instead of looking at the dark side all the time, the narrator thinks of his earlier childhood. He was a stubborn child, proud and a little spiteful. He did not wish to become a model child. He was just being himself. The piano has a very important role in