5 Comments
1] Mai's mother was a very messy and disorganized person, and often felt like a "fugitive" in her own home.
2] Mai's mother often wrote journal entries about her life, and in one particular entry, she writes about her life in Vietnam and how HER mother was getting married and how she wanted to pass down her wisdom to Mai. Her "Awesome Ears" as she calls it.
3] Mai's grandmothers wedding started off uneventful, and she married at the age of 14? (Book does not describes that part).
4] Mai's mother was born with "heavenly ears". They were so long that they were compared with pictures of Buddha. It was believed that her ears broke the karma and fear of the traditional ears cut off from pigs.
5] Mai didn't feel comfortable with who she was, and as her mother describes her, she doesnt like blemishes and imperfection.
4 Questions
1] Why were the ears of pigs cut off in the ceremony of a marriage?
2] What it bad luck if a girl did not bled three drops of blood on her marriage night?
3] Why didn't Mai accept her Vietnamese culture? Was she ashamed?
4] How old was Mai's mother when she wrote the entry?
3 Vocabulary
1] Peculiar: Strange; odd.
2] Sidled: To move sideways or obliquely.
3] Catacomb: Usually, catacombs. an underground cemetery, esp. one consisting of tunnels and rooms with recesses dug out for coffins and tombs.
2 Literary Terms
1] "My mother's bedroom was dark, emptied her." - Metaphor.
2] "I threw myself on her bed and felt the seemingly infinte silence, the expanse of sadness that was peculiarly hers, dissolve inside my body." -Metaphor.
1 Overview Sentence
In this chapter of the book, Mai's mother wrote a journal entry about her life in Vietnam and about her mother. It describes her mothers wedding and how she was born and what she wants for her daughter.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monkey Bridge Chapter 5
5 Comments
1] Mai's mother said that Connecticut is not the safest place in America.
2] Mai tried to convince her mother to let her go to an American college.
3] In Vietnam, there were outdoor markets called "Sky Markets" that were vast and prosperous.
4] Vietnamese people back then were and are now obsessed with karma.
5] The vietnamese word for "please" as in "could you please," literally means "to make good karma."
4 Questions
1] What was the condition of Vietnam at the time that Mai and her mother was in the U.S?
2] How was it like for Mai to help her mother with daily tasks, like grocery shopping?
3] Where was Aunt Mary and Uncle Michael living now?
4] How long did it take Mai to learn English?
3 Vocabulary
1] Prestigious: indicative of or conferring prestige.
2] Meandered: To follow a winding and turning course.
3] Obsolete:
no longer in general use; fallen into disuse.
2 Literary terms
1] "I could see the moon etched against our windowpane, fat and full of milk." -Metaphor.
2] "It was as prestigious as a local scholar being admitted to the mandarin rank at the emporer's court." -Simile.
1 Overview Sentence
Mai recaps on the beginning events that took place when her and her mother first came to the U.S.
1] Mai's mother said that Connecticut is not the safest place in America.
2] Mai tried to convince her mother to let her go to an American college.
3] In Vietnam, there were outdoor markets called "Sky Markets" that were vast and prosperous.
4] Vietnamese people back then were and are now obsessed with karma.
5] The vietnamese word for "please" as in "could you please," literally means "to make good karma."
4 Questions
1] What was the condition of Vietnam at the time that Mai and her mother was in the U.S?
2] How was it like for Mai to help her mother with daily tasks, like grocery shopping?
3] Where was Aunt Mary and Uncle Michael living now?
4] How long did it take Mai to learn English?
3 Vocabulary
1] Prestigious: indicative of or conferring prestige.
2] Meandered: To follow a winding and turning course.
3] Obsolete:
no longer in general use; fallen into disuse.
2 Literary terms
1] "I could see the moon etched against our windowpane, fat and full of milk." -Metaphor.
2] "It was as prestigious as a local scholar being admitted to the mandarin rank at the emporer's court." -Simile.
1 Overview Sentence
Mai recaps on the beginning events that took place when her and her mother first came to the U.S.
Monkey Bridge Chapter 4
5 Comments
1] Mai could sense danger lurking everywhere she go.
2] When Mai and her mother first came to the U.S, they lived in a apartment complex in Falls Church, Virginia. It was a beat up, rundown apartment.
3] Mai's mother believed in omens from antennas and inanimate objects while her father believed in omens from action and inaction, maneurvering and mismaneuvering of political life.
4] Ho Chi Minh city was actually named after a person.
5] For Mai and her mothers first winter, they had to huddle up hear a open oven to keep warm.
4 Questions
1] What is Mai's fathers theory about "one wrong move"?
2] What started World War II? What were the conflicts?
3] What did Mai see omens in?
4] What would happen if they were to be caught crossing the borders?
3 Vocabulary
1] Refrain: to abstain from an impulse to say or do something.
2] Unpropitious: Unfavorable; inauspicious.
3] Ominous: portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious.
2 Literary Terms
1] "The sun, dull and splattered like a burnt yolk, was hiding low, snagged behind a mass of clouds so thick and dull that even the lush cedar-green looked a sludgy olive." -Simile/Metaphor.
2] "Imprints of trees pressed themselves against the windshield, black silhouettes that hung like bleak skeletons." -Simile.
1 Overview Sentence
Bobbie and Mai are still traveling to Canada but Mai is having a self conflict about crossing the border because she feels that danger is lurking amongst them.
1] Mai could sense danger lurking everywhere she go.
2] When Mai and her mother first came to the U.S, they lived in a apartment complex in Falls Church, Virginia. It was a beat up, rundown apartment.
3] Mai's mother believed in omens from antennas and inanimate objects while her father believed in omens from action and inaction, maneurvering and mismaneuvering of political life.
4] Ho Chi Minh city was actually named after a person.
5] For Mai and her mothers first winter, they had to huddle up hear a open oven to keep warm.
4 Questions
1] What is Mai's fathers theory about "one wrong move"?
2] What started World War II? What were the conflicts?
3] What did Mai see omens in?
4] What would happen if they were to be caught crossing the borders?
3 Vocabulary
1] Refrain: to abstain from an impulse to say or do something.
2] Unpropitious: Unfavorable; inauspicious.
3] Ominous: portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious.
2 Literary Terms
1] "The sun, dull and splattered like a burnt yolk, was hiding low, snagged behind a mass of clouds so thick and dull that even the lush cedar-green looked a sludgy olive." -Simile/Metaphor.
2] "Imprints of trees pressed themselves against the windshield, black silhouettes that hung like bleak skeletons." -Simile.
1 Overview Sentence
Bobbie and Mai are still traveling to Canada but Mai is having a self conflict about crossing the border because she feels that danger is lurking amongst them.
Monkey Bridge Chapter 3
5 Comments
1] Mai and Bobbie are on a roadtrip to a place where they have never been.
2] Mai feels uncomfortable about leaving her mother behind at the hospital.
3] They were headed to Canada, in search of a way to try to contact her grandfather in Vietnam.
4] Mai feels unwanted in the U.S., because of what happened in the war. She feels as though shes a reminder of a war the whole country was trying to forget.
5] Mai felt nervous about crossing the border and she thinks that they'll get caught.
4 Questions
1] Did Canada offer shelter for refuges who sought relief from war? Would they accept Bobbie and Mai?
2] What would happen if they were caught crossing the borders?
3] Why couldn't they call he grandfather in Vietnam from the U.S.?
4] How did her mother get a blood clot in her brain?
3 Vocabulary
1] Cozied: Snug, comfortable and warm.
2] Topography: the detailed mapping or charting of the features of a relatively small area, district, or locality.
3] Permanence: the condition or quality of being permanent; perpetual or continued existence.
2 Literary Terms
1] "Watching a uniformed man tap spekcs of cinder from his cigarette like red warning lights flashed into the dusk of winter." - Simile.
2] "I could only see danger looming in the land, over there." -Personification.
1 Overview Sentence
Mai and Bobbie are driving to Canada so they can find a way to contact her grandfather from Vietnam.
1] Mai and Bobbie are on a roadtrip to a place where they have never been.
2] Mai feels uncomfortable about leaving her mother behind at the hospital.
3] They were headed to Canada, in search of a way to try to contact her grandfather in Vietnam.
4] Mai feels unwanted in the U.S., because of what happened in the war. She feels as though shes a reminder of a war the whole country was trying to forget.
5] Mai felt nervous about crossing the border and she thinks that they'll get caught.
4 Questions
1] Did Canada offer shelter for refuges who sought relief from war? Would they accept Bobbie and Mai?
2] What would happen if they were caught crossing the borders?
3] Why couldn't they call he grandfather in Vietnam from the U.S.?
4] How did her mother get a blood clot in her brain?
3 Vocabulary
1] Cozied: Snug, comfortable and warm.
2] Topography: the detailed mapping or charting of the features of a relatively small area, district, or locality.
3] Permanence: the condition or quality of being permanent; perpetual or continued existence.
2 Literary Terms
1] "Watching a uniformed man tap spekcs of cinder from his cigarette like red warning lights flashed into the dusk of winter." - Simile.
2] "I could only see danger looming in the land, over there." -Personification.
1 Overview Sentence
Mai and Bobbie are driving to Canada so they can find a way to contact her grandfather from Vietnam.
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