Comprehension
What was the name of the American serviceman who met Lan in a bar in Saigon?
Answer: Paul (51-52)
“the scent of battle sucked so deep into their flesh it would linger even after their rigorous showers” 47
-Deep seeded, spiritual/emotional, nature of PTSD (inside them not just on them)
-rigorous: need/want to rid oneself of those feelings/experiences/memories
-carried by them in a way that effects not just them for the rest of their lives but those around them, their relationships (perceived by Lan, scent, earlier section mentioned touch)
On page 52 how does language shape the situation between his mom and the clerk?
“Even when you looked the part, your tongue outed you”
What did Earl Woods call his friend, Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Dang Phong?
Answer: "Tiger" or "Tiger Phong" (56-57)
“A girl who leaves her husband, is the rot of the harvest, she repeated the proverb her mother told her. A girl who leaves…” 47
-spoiled herself, repetition emphasizes the effect this has had on her, how she’s internalized her guilt about letting down her mom (cycle?)
-definitions of femininity: her worth as a daughter/wife/woman is defined by loyalty to men
-cultural identity: similarities and contradictions between gender roles in Vietnam vs. America
On pages 58-59 how does the pastor's sermon further develop Little Dog’s connection with and love for langage?
-his utilization of the spoken word–his storytelling–introduces Little Dog to something more than Lan’s vivid and immerse imagery: a presence and active power
-akin to magic, shows how special and supernatural lange is on a larger scale (connecting with the congregation, vs him and Lan)
What historical event was happening in Saigon when Lan and Paul were holed up in a one-room apartment?
Answer: The Tet Offensive (52-53)
Take a minute to read the middle paragraph on page 60 ending in ”it mattered to you what they called Tiger Woods on TV, how you needed color to be a fixed and inviolable fact”. Analyize this quote and why Rose may feel this way?
-Race as construct (Vietnam vs. America)
-not let others have power over her through abstract definitions of race, permanence = protection
-visibility, power, safety in categorization
The song Ca trú how does the theme of language add complexity to the meaning of the song to the main character’s family and Paul vs. the friends party goers?
(use bottom of 49-50 for context/quotes to help explain)
-power of language (reveals past memories: lan/PTSD)
-modes of communication (that work for specific people or groups), those that can/can’t access it
-also touches themes of: history, sidestepping/trauma, cultural identity, and beauty juxtaposed with violence
How did Earl Woods die?
He was captured, died of heart failure in a work camp
”Sometimes you are erased before you are given the choice of stating who you are…to be or not to be. That is the question. A question, yes, but not a choice” and later after Paul calls Little Dog his grandson and the women properly introduces herself and greets him, he thinks to himself “my body [is] now legible”
-racism, has to be defined by white people before he can define himself
-to even exist is a struggle, to be acknowledged as an equal
-legible: writing, “the nameless yellow body was not considered human because it did not fit on a slot of paper”, power of writing for recognition, justice, and a way to take power into his own hands? (63 and 65)
What is the significance of language when Lan gets to know Paul:
“These two unlikely hillbillies must have found a familiar dialect that fused the gap between their estranged vernaculars” (middle 48)
-despite differences in culture, language allowed them to realize their similarity of experience and connect
-though language is how they reach that connection, it is ultimately bigger than language, language is just the mode utilized to reach that (what him and his mom lack)
What significant realization did the narrator have when his mother took him to a Baptist church service?
Answer: That inside a song, she could speak freely without being judged, could call out to her absent father (59-60)
“other days I feel more like a sound. I touch the world not as myself but as an of who I was. Can you hear me yet? Can you read me?“(62)
-echo/sound vs. concret/lasting writing emphasizes the fluidity of identity and it's difficult to put into words therefore
-echo: Spiral history/memory or deer shadow (jumbles past and present: we are made of our history so its something we will embody as we grow), makes me think of mom PTSD
-hearing/reading + yet: disconnect with mom and communicating his identity/thought/feelings with her, yet = past failure but he still hopes (he’s so close)
Explain the two parts of the name "Eldrick" and their significance in his life?
-Because their family was often attacked/vandalized in Brooklyn and wanted to be pillars on each end of their sons name