Monkey Bridge Chapter 2

5 Comments
1] Mai's mother was in the hospital being treated.
2] Her mother kept calling out her father's name "Baba Quan" in her sleep.
3] Her mother had always been devoted to her grandfather.
4] Baba Quan was left behind in Vietnam when Mai and her mother escaped.
5] Her mother is partially paralyzed.

4 Questions
1] Why is her mother calling out "Baba Quan" in her sleep?
2] What happened to the rest of her family?
3] Why was she being strapped down?
4] What happened to her grandfather?

3 Vocabulary
1] Insignia: a badge or distinguishing mark of office or honor.
2] Narcotically: any of a class of substances that blunt the senses, as opium, morphine, belladonna, and alcohol, that in large quantities produce euphoria, stupor, or coma, that when used constantly can cause habituation or addiction, and that are used in medicine to relieve pain, cause sedation, and induce sleep.
3] Tourniquet: any device for arresting bleeding by forcibly compressing a blood vessel, as a bandage tightened by twisting.

2 Literary Terms
1] "With the random force ad strength of a trapped and frustrated eel." - Metaphor.
2] "She was squeezing a rubber toy shaped like a bowling pen." -Simile.

1 Overview sentence
Her mother is in the hospital bed being injected with a needle, and strapped down. She is apparently mentally unstable.