Kong Yiji
What was the narrator's first job in the story?
Pot-boy/tavern server.
"At the age of twelve, I started work as a pot-boy in Prosperity Tavern..."
What is the madman's delusion?
He thinks people are cannibals and want to eat him.
"I too am a man, and they want to eat me!"
Who says, “Do dead people turn into ghosts or not?” to the narrator?
Xianglin's Wife
What did the soap that Ssu-min bought for his wife smell like?
Olives.
"After this, an indefinable fragrance rather reminiscent of olives always emanated from Mrs. Ssu-min."
What skill of Kong Yiji's helped him make money from time to time?
Calligraphy.
"Luckily he was a good calligrapher and could find enough copying work to fill his rice bowl."
How does the madman believe his younger sister died?
He thinks his older brother ate her.
"I know now how my little sister died; it was all through him..."
What story did Xianglin’s Wife repeatedly tell to the townspeople in an attempt to gain their sympathy?
The story of her son, Amao, getting killed by the wolves.
"‘That’s bad,’ they said. ‘A wolf must have got him.’ And sure enough, further on, there he was lying in the wolf’s den, all his innards eaten away, still clutching that little basket tight in his hand. . . .”
What did Ssu-min initally notice about the granddaughter who was begging on the street with her grandmother?
He noticed her filial piety; she was giving all the money to her grandmother.
"Whatever trifle the girl received, she gave it to her grandmother, choosing to go hungry herself...
What did Kong Yiji's refusal to adapt to the new dialect explain about society at the time (think back to Professor Mac's lecture on Wednesday)?
Modernity was upon them, and language, grammar, and syntax were changing heavily as a result of globalization and exposure to new cultures and people.
"He used so many archaisms in his speech that half of it was barely intelligible."
What was a reoccurring characteristic the madman observed in the people around him/saw as a threat?
A. the way people walked B. the look in their eyes C. the way they smiled
B. the look in their eyes
"...Mr. Zhao had a strange look in his eyes, as if he were afraid of me, as if he wanted to murder me."
"A group of children in the front were also discussing me, and the look in their eyes was just like that in Mr. Zhao's..."
Who says this quote: "Better guard against that in good time, I say. Go to the Temple of the Tutelary God and buy a threshold to be trampled on instead of you by thousands of people. If you atone for your sins in this life you’ll escape torment after death.”
A. Amah Liu B. Ms. Wei C. Narrator's aunt
A. Amah Liu
What is the significance of the father not being able to understand the children at the soap store's insult to him?
An example of modernization through language generational differences due to a push away from classical Chinese.
1. How did Kong Yiji break his legs, and 2. what is the significance of this in the story (think back to Professor Mac's lecture on Wednesday)?
"He'd been stealing again. This time he was fool enough to steal from Mr. Ding, the provincial grade scholar... First he wrote a confession, then he was beaten... and they broke both his legs."
2. Kong Yiji was figuratively and literally reduced to half the man he was. Goes hand in hand with the way he was perceived already.
What does cannibalism symbolize in the story (think back to Professor Mac's lecture of Wednesday)?
The oppressive nature of traditional Chinese culture at the time
Discussion Prompt: Every group can attempt to answer, we'll pick the best one!
What parallel can be drawn between the New Year sacrifice and the death of Xianglin's wife?
Similarly to how the geese and chickens are offerings to ensure a good and gracious year for the people, Xianglin's Wife plays the same role. She is seen as disposable, and in a way, her fate was always to be the poor, desolate woman, and because she was the "sacrifice," everyone else in the story lived a better life.
Why does the son not know what o-do-fu means?
A. He attends a half-Western, half-Chinese school, so there is less emphasis on Chinese dialects, and more on speech and comprehension in English
B. His father puts more emphasis on classical Chinese at home, so he doesn't understand modern Chinese very well
A. He attends a half-Western, half-Chinese school, so there is less emphasis on Chinese dialects, and more on speech and comprehension in English
"I've spent quite a bit of money on Hsueh-cheng, all to no purpose. It wasn't easy to get him into this half-Western, half-Chinese school, where they claim they lay equal stress on 'speaking and comprehending English.'4 You'd think all should be well. But—bah!—after one whole year of study he can't even understand o-du-fu!"
"English was taught in nearly all the new schools at that time, and learning to speak was considered as important as learning to read."