Community Reflection Paper Due 11/12! Papers are to be 3-4 pages long, typed, double-

space, 12pt font, with works cited. Students will briefly summarize the event they

attended. Pertinent details may include date, location, sponsoring organization, occasion, and audience.

Students will relate the event they attend to any of the readings, overarching questions, and key themes of our course.

The two major questions to consider: How does this event present a sense of Asian American identity and community? How is it an attempt by Asian Americans to make home in San Diego?

announcements

{

the gangster we are all looking for

the language of bones and pebbles

the Buddhist gangster from the North and the Catholic school girl from the South

“War is a bird” (87) Destruction of parents’ dreams

by actual war and also its legacies

Persisting desire to survive, rebel, and dream

“When I grow up I am going to be the gangster we are all looking for” (93)

Destruction of home in Vietnam & San Diego by capitalism

“There is not a trace of blood anywhere except here, in my throat, where I am telling you all this” (99)the gangster

{question 1

What kind of father is the narrator’s dad? What is their relationship like?

“The rumors about him are mysterious and mundane…but somehow he alone managed to crawl here, on his hands and knees, to this life” (103)

What memories haunt Ba (105)? How does the narrator remember

their departure (108)? How is Ba affected by it (109)? The failure of words & loss of

identity (114-115)

memory & trauma

{question 2

Why does the narrator believe that she sees her future in her father? (116)

Why does the father become prone to rages (116)?

What does the narrator attempt to forget and why does she think that will protect her (117-118)?

What does Ba apologize for (118)? And why does the narrator get mad at others for judging her Ba (119)?forgetting &

forgiveness

“He spread his hands wide open, and said, in Vietnamese, to anyone who could understand, there were things he had lost grasp of” (118)

“’I don’t understand you’” (119) “’Do you understand?’” (122) Can you ever understand? Can you ever name a loss so large that it

seems to swallow you whole? “He made himself small” (122)

the failure of language

{question 3

Why is the father linked to the image of the bones of birds? (124)

I stood outside, looking in through the open window. He looked small. I thought of the bones of birds. I thought of a prized pebble in my palm. I closed my hand into a fist and pressed it hard against my body. (124)

the bones of birds

What are the settings of the last chapter and how could that explain why the author entitles it “nu’o’c”?

Why does Ba constantly consider the image of the woman on the news? Why does he want to go help her (152)?

What is the final image of the novel? Why do you think the author chooses to end the story in this way? nu’o’c