https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv Made with a creative bloodlust en-us 2018-05-11 13:08:18 UTC 2025-10-11 00:02:28 UTC hello@padlet.com efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259933115 The first time you are introduced to the book in the inside cover, the cast of characters, you know the family has a complicated history. Almost all of the parents had either affairs or second marriages, resulting in having children with different partners. You are also introduced to GB, the writer of the memoir and you are immediately drawn to him and his inability to hold on to his identity. He was born in America, as written in the inside of the dust cover of the book. He let go of his Vietnamese roots, exchanging his name of Gia-Bao for G.B.. This name change seems to have caused him much trouble, as he is trying desperately to regain Gia-bao, along with his own past, as all of his family has a distinct past and present in their portraits, whereas Tran is losing it. From the get-go you know that Tran is different from his family as they all have their lives together in tight portraits, or at least, they appear to. ]]> 2018-05-11 13:21:11 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259933115 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259942833 GB Tran ]]> 2018-05-11 13:46:03 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259942833 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259950356 immediately you see smoke over a river, immediately after a bombing has occurred. there is a plane flying above and the sound of war and chaos shown in a continuous, very rough sound block (VVVVVVRRRRRR) that is then continued through to the next page as Tran's father's snores (ZZZZZZZZzzzz). The text boxes used in these first pages are trans mothers account of her and her Tran's fathers time in the war. the scene of the war is all rough black lines, the only beauty on the page is the mothers words. in the flashback, Vietnam is shown as a dark, rough place with blood red skies. But when Tran lands in Vietnam it is a prosperous and bright city with beautiful blue skies and rivers, showing the contrast between life in and out of wartime. ]]> 2018-05-11 14:02:52 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/259950356 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/260256404 2018-05-13 18:32:29 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/260256404 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262527296 Planes are used for good and bad symbolism in this novel. planes are a marvel of engineering, they give humans the ability to fly. To traverse the world more efficiently than they ever had before. With planes, human can also kill more efficiently. People are kept in order when they see warplanes above. This transition is very commonly used by Tran, as his family's stories are mostly about how his parents survived wartime, so the plane transition, having planes on a dark side, tells you that a war is happening. a symbol of death from above, but still a symbol of travel. the first time it is used is on the 2nd and 3rd page. the more modern plane coming in on the left, with Tran and his family, and the old warplane on the right. both at the top of the page but both very different. The style of the planes are what differentiates them. The modern plane is whiter with more subtle details, showing the ease of modern life, the war plane is dark because of the strong detailing, showing the hardship of war. This acts as the first transition of the story, and shows how integral planes will be in the coming story. if only as transitional symbols. ]]> 2018-05-21 23:33:47 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262527296 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262868178 The families of Tran, being in Vietnam during the war, had to deal with loss on a very impactful scale. His mother's and father's family were both very complicated in their own unique ways. Tran's mother, Dzung, had a very complicated life. Her father was killed, for "standing in the wrong place at the wrong time" and her family fled their home, as life in wartime is not a good life to live." "[Dzung's mother] needed more than the stability of another husband", she needed a new life, away from the chaos and unpredictability, she didn't want to lose someone else as she lost her husband.
Tran's Father, Tri Huu, had a similarly complicated life during wartime. He similarly lost his father like Dzung, and his family had to deal with his mother being the only person to take care of the children. Tri Huu had a sister and a brother, but unfortunately for the family, Tri Huu's mother could not take care of all three children herself. when she met a french colonel, she had to move away from her hometown of Mytho. They had to move to a new house, which didnt have enough room for everyone. Tri Huu's brother had to stay with their grandparents. That is not an easy thing for anyone to do, but Tri Huu's mother would be unable to raise all three of them herself. The Colonel, who Le Nhi (Tri Huu's Mother) had been involved with, also had a child. One day when Tri Huu was coming back from school with his friend Do, a bomb went off in the town center near where they were. The colonel, being involved with the military, became involved in the crossfire, he died. This made his son without a home, so Le Nhi was forced to take him in, so the family was living with a boy they didn't really know, when one of them still didn't live with them. The family kept separating and dividing an losing each other. Tri's sister got a scholarship for education abroad, then his brother did, but when he became eligible it stopped. He had bad luck and had to deal with living in the country when it was going through horrible wartime and riots. Tri, after not being able to go to school abroad, did the only thing he could. he starred in movies. ]]> 2018-05-23 00:05:56 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262868178 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262875830 Tran lives in New York city, so he was given the false expectation that he is adapted to a loud and unclean environment. But he was not, Vietnam was much worse. he travelled to a place of pure chaos, as shown by his images. Tran was American born, unlike his parents, so he was given an unhealthy expectation of global quality of life. he had always thought that he had lots of hardship in New York, that his city was the loudest and grossest in the world, when really, it was just the loudest and grossest he had been to. He assumed that when his mother told him that Vietnam was very loud and gross that she was overreacting, but it turned out that she was telling the truth. Tran's experience during that trip to Vietnam showed him that America isn't the only place in the world. Growing up in America, everyone is taught that America is the best place in the world, the most developed, the richest, the nicest. This makes kids, even those born to immigrants like tran, see that America is the only country. Americans usually stay in America, and are raised there and educated there their entire life. Tran becomes an outsider when he goes to Vietnam, as his shaved head is a bad sign for people that aren't monks. His identity is questioned, and he is pushed into the public eye for being different.]]> 2018-05-23 00:52:31 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/262875830 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/263504332 GB's Father has been best friends with Tri Huu Do since they were in school together, and they both had almost the same name. i will refer to GB's father as Tri Huu, and his friend as Do, as that is how it is in the book.
Do and Tri Huu both have had similar experiences throughout life. they were in school in Vietnam together, and were both planning to escape at the same time, but Do was taken by the communists. He was very smart, and the smart people were the people that could cause the most trouble for the communists, so he was taken to a labor camp very far away. the communists were very scared of being destroyed, so smart people, like teachers (which Do was) and other educated professionals were taken away from their families and friends. Do is all alone, with no one to talk to, unable to leave with his best friend as he planned. This is shown in the imagery of one of the pages. GB's mom is telling him about Do, talking about how people in vietnam were living each day at a time, never knowing what will come next, never knowing if they will die or even see their family again. these words are juxtaposed over the images of Do in the labor camp, showing his experience, then in the final panel, it shows the full page again, showing how he was living the same thing over and over again, never knowing if he will die. But there is some hope in the imagery of Do's horrible normalities, he is given the chance to write a letter, the only thing that keeps him going through the never-changing pain. 
Tri huu, being so similar to Do, had a similar experience to Do's in the labor camp. His father, Huu Nghiep, who had left Tri Huu as a baby, was being searched for by the communists. Tri Huu had no memory of Huu Nghiep, so his experience in prison was never changing, he was beaten by the guards everyday, always asked the same question, and never giving an answer. He had to live for many months through the beatings and questioning, and it seemingly never let up. an officer always came in, asked "Anything new to tell us this week, Tri?" and tri always stayed quiet, and was always hit because of the silence, every week, never letting up. ]]> 2018-05-24 23:55:14 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/263504332 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/263906865 When GB's parents go to Vietnam, for the first time back together since they left,  they are also out of their element. they had not been there for almost 2 decades, and had almost the exact same experience GB had. Tran used the same imagery, of them being in the center of the page, overwhelmed by the sounds and smells, as Vietnam had changed since they left. They had gotten used to America just as their son had. But for them, they also lost something during that shock. They had left Vietnam, and assumed everything they left behind would stay the way they remembered it. That was not the case, modern cultures are always modernizing and changing, with disregard for people that left or people still there. Tran's parents had gone into the city to see their old house, as it was a place they had fond memories of in Vietnam. But there are restaurants named after American movies made about the Vietnam war (good morning Vietnam restaurant) there are people eating McDonald's fries (as oppose to traditional Vietnamese foods) and there are American hotel chains (the Hilton). That was not what Vietnam used to be, it is barely Vietnam, it has been modernized and americanized. It is Vietnamerica. 
Though there is still hope and comfort for Tran's parents, they find their old home and find with it, the one, lonely sliver of the Vietnam they remembered. ]]> 2018-05-27 23:08:47 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/263906865 efairley20211_1 https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/264401247 towards the end of the memoir, Tran has shown that he has a reliance on many different styles. Whether it be to show the pain of a labor camp, or the sounds of war or sounds and smells and discomfort of a city you don't know, or a life before war or a life you see through an older filter. Tran uses these different styles to accentuate the differences he feels with different parts in his life or the life of his family. his father, as a child lived in the most perfect life depicted in the book. All the panels are outlined like a "normal" graphic novel, as opposed to the un-outlined and non paneled panels of the rest of the book. Tri Huu's life is the only life in the book where everything goes according to the general plan, though it is not at all a normal life. Trans life is all sepia tones as a child, in the late 20th century. That was how he remembered is life, bland and uninteresting, as he was not connected to anything. but in writing this book and going to vietnam, he is finally connected to his past, on page () all of his life is connected. his life before vietnam is transferred to his life after, his life is changed and transported from a life of solitude to a life of connection to his past. ]]> 2018-05-30 01:01:58 UTC https://padlet.com/efairley20211_1/yywunuab09tv/wish/264401247