Sher Rie and Lauren

Q14:Jack wants to fit in and feels his mom is a reject from the american dream

Q24: Jack wants to be american but his mom stuck to being herself, chinese. He refuses to believe he's chinese so he tried to be as asmerican as he can. He truly wants his mother to be the same as him so that he and his mom can fit in with other people.

Q17) The dad suggested that he should let Jack try to fit in with the "American culture" by buying new toys, cooking new food, speaking english etc to not get discriminated by his class friends. He also know what Jack's struggles are at school. While jack's mom hunched down, seeming to be embarrassed, but is unable to know why.

Q27) Jack goes to a college in California. Perhaps why he goes there is to get away as far as he can from his parents. He contemplates weather or not he should show affection or care to his mother as all he can think about is going back to his college to in pursuit of his "American dream life".

short story within the genre of fantasy or magical realism?

Mom creates the paper origami Laohu, a goat, a deer and a water buffalo. Ken Liu establishes the short story within the genre of magical realism by making the setting realistic, showing the characters have real issues even though they are surrounded by magic, and showing none of the characters question the magic as it is normal.

12) How is Mark’s Obi-Wan Kenobi toy a foil to Jack’s Laohu? What happens to

Obi-Wan Kenobi, and what is Mark’s reaction to Laohu and Jack? What does he say? Why? What happens to Laohu?

Mark's Obi-Wan Kenobi is a foil to Jack's Laohu, as it is an American, more expensive and store-bought toy compared to Jack's Chinese, handmade and cheaper paper origami, Laohu.

22) Why does Liu juxtapose these two sentences together: “Mom learned to cook

American style. I played video games and studied French.” How do the sentences characterise both Jack and his mom?

Liu juxtaposes these two sentences together to emphasise growth, development and change as they adapt to the American culture. The sentence characterises Mom as a 'normal' American mom who cooks American-style foods such as fried food and cheese. Jack is characterised as a typical American student who likes to play video games and studies other languages such as French.

Q11) The toy symbolizes Mark's different culture and / or state of living because of the way Mark's family vs Jack's family is accepted into the society.

Q21)The dad approves of Jack's actions and starts telling his mom to speak more English and that the dad knows that Jack is right. The dad can't look Jack in the eyes because Jack looks like his mother; a Chinese person.

Jack's mom first makes for him out of origami?

Jack was born in the year of tiger.  Jack’s mom first made him a tiger origami at his lowest point. This year might be significant as tigers represent bravery, leadership and courage and his mom’s creation may be to remind him of that.

18.How and why does Jack resolve his external conflict with Mark?

Jack resolves his external conflict with Mark by giving him a new Obi-Wan Kenobi figure to Mark.

28.What is Qingming and what does Mom say Jack should do on it? What did she

do on Qingming when Jack was growing up? What can Qingming symbolise?

Why?

Qingming is a festival where the spirits of the departed are allowed to visit their families. Mom says that when Jack is longing for him he should revisit the paper origami because that’s “a little of myself behind on this paper”.

When Jack was growing up she used to write a letter on QIngming to her dead parents back in China, reporting of the news of her life in America.

QingMing symbolizes the unbreakable bond between ancestors and current generations which also emphasizes on the respect and devotion to them. This is because every year you have to write a letter to  your parents without knowing if it evens gets to them.

family? How do they behave and what do they say about Jack and Jack’s dad?

Why? How does this event likely affect Jack? Why? What dramatic irony is in

this event, too?

What's ironic is that they seem to only welcome Jack’s Dad and not the whole family. They

seem to be closeted racists, as they treat Jack's dad nicely for being American but they gossip

about Jack’s Mom and Jack for having chinese blood. This event likely leads to Jack now hating

her mom for giving birth to her as a chinese-american as now he doesn’t fit into the local

community.

The dramatic irony in this event is when the women question if Jack can speak english too,

And Jack then greets them in english with “Hi.”

20.How does Jack distance himself from his mother? Why? What does Mom try to

do to make Jack happy? Why is she unsuccessful?

Jack doesn't respond to his mother at all whenever she speaks in Chinese. This is because Jack blames her mother for his misfortune at school for not being “American” enough and not fitting in. Although mom tries to console him by making more paper animals that he used to like before the incident , she is ultimately unsuccessful as the paper animals remind him of his Chinese heritage and thus his role as an outcast in society.

29.What does Mom imply when she says, “Haizi, mama ai ni”? What memory does

Jack recall? Why?

In her note she says that to express herself truly is to communicate in Mandarin. Jack recalls

when she said if she says the word “ai” she truly feels it in her heart, a feeling she cannot feel if she says the word “love”. Despite her son wanting her to speak in English, she says the line “Haizi, mama ai ni” as she wants to accentuate the love for him from her.

But why stop there? As Jack is the only one in her circle who is like her, who can remind her of her own family, Chinese is what connects them both together. The mom saying her last words to him in Chinese shows a true feeling of connection, to show that despite her death she will forever remain in the heart and in the mind of Jack.

daripada damian and idris bin qasim azam

Q16- She says that if she speaks the word ‘love’ in English, she means it from just her mouth, implying that it’s just a word that she throws around, having no true meaning behind it. But she says that when she says the word ‘ai’, she means it from her heart, implying that she means it deeply.

Question 15: Jack said that his mother doesn't understand or speak English. He has a Chinese-looking face, so he felt left out.

Question 25: Jack's mom was seen lying on a hospital bed. On the next scene, Jack's thoughts were focused on other things rather than his mom.

In modest ways, such as keeping the paper creatures, Dad honours Mom's memory when she passes away, demonstrating his deeper concern than Jack anticipated. Jack comes to the realisation that he and his father both handled their relationship with Mom poorly, though in different ways: Jack rejected her, while his father remained silent and passive.