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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
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the Buddhist gangster from the
North and the Catholic school girl
from the South
“War is a bird” (87)
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Persisting desire to survive, rebel,
and dream
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“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
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the gangster
Destruction of parents’ dreams by
actual war and also its legacies
“There is not a trace of blood
anywhere except here, in my throat,
where I am telling you all this” (99)
What kind of father is the
narrator’s dad? What is
their relationship like?
{
question 1
“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)
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memory & trauma
Why does the narrator
believe that she sees her
future in her father? (116)
{
question 2
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)?
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forgetting & forgiveness
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“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
Why is the father linked
to the image of the
bones of birds? (124)
{
question 3
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?
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nu’o’c