Difference between revisions of "426--Week 9 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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Even though the first few pages were confusing at first, it was nice to see the narrator go back to the story about the father who got cheated out of the laundry business and took his wife to California. I did enjoy getting to read more up on that part of the family, but it was still made confusing with the tid bit about the father being born in America after telling us earlier he immigrated to America and that he was in America when he married his wife, only I thought he was in China earlier when he married his wife... @.@ The narrator should stick to one story or simply say I don't know how he got here, it was either A or B, but we're not sure. -- Ashley Wilkins | Even though the first few pages were confusing at first, it was nice to see the narrator go back to the story about the father who got cheated out of the laundry business and took his wife to California. I did enjoy getting to read more up on that part of the family, but it was still made confusing with the tid bit about the father being born in America after telling us earlier he immigrated to America and that he was in America when he married his wife, only I thought he was in China earlier when he married his wife... @.@ The narrator should stick to one story or simply say I don't know how he got here, it was either A or B, but we're not sure. -- Ashley Wilkins | ||
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| + | Responding to Ashley's comment about the different, and contradictory, versions of the story: This makes me think that maybe King's writing is not really just about her family but is a collection of stories and experiences from many sources that King uses to synthesize one experience (another example of this is how she tells the story of the "legal father" and the "illegal father"). I think she is creating an impression of a collective experience of Chinese immigrants, rather than literally telling the story of one family. This would explain why she throws in all the seemingly random mythological stories, and why she described the experience of coming in legally to Angel island AND coming in illegally through New York. She also touches upon Chinese Americans living in various parts of the US (the east coast, the west coast, Hawaii). So I think she is trying to tell a story that represents a collective experience, not a true family history. I could be wrong though. Maybe her dad really never told her these facts about his life, and so she had to speculate. But that seems unlikely to me. Wouldn't he be willing to tell her this stuff? -- Rebecca | ||
After reading this story I truly feel bad for the Father and his family. Losing a laundry business by being cheated by your partners, moving across the country to lose another job and two houses must have been truly frustrating. I thought it was interesting how when the father gave-up the mother took on the dual role of caregiver and nagger. She both pampered him and yelled at him to try and get him to find another job. I was happy to see that in the end he was able to start a new business and raise his family in a more comfortable manner. --Sarah Gardner | After reading this story I truly feel bad for the Father and his family. Losing a laundry business by being cheated by your partners, moving across the country to lose another job and two houses must have been truly frustrating. I thought it was interesting how when the father gave-up the mother took on the dual role of caregiver and nagger. She both pampered him and yelled at him to try and get him to find another job. I was happy to see that in the end he was able to start a new business and raise his family in a more comfortable manner. --Sarah Gardner | ||
