Sunday, January 31, 2010

4)How are young people and their ideals presented in two stories in the collection. How far do you indentify with this young people?

In Tanjong Rhu, the little daughter was rude to her grandmother. In society now, teenagers are generally rude to their elderly grandmother.

3)With refrence to suitable story, dicuss how far change is shown to be either welcomed or feared.

In Paper, the change of how they were poor at first,and then became rich, and finally became bankrupt overnight. It was ironic twist to the story at the end as they finally did not achive what they desire and the husband became crazy and died of his greed.This type of change was not welcomed as this was not what they have expected to happen.

2)Select two stories in which there is conflict between parent and child, and show how far there is some resoultion of these difference at the end

In Mid Autumn, the mother was waiting for the daughter to come back every Mid Autumn festival.Whereas her daughter always does not turn up. In the end of the story, the mother accepted her daughter's choice of leaving to Uganda.

In Tanjong Rhu, the son does not trust and believe his mother when she see's the past when using the binoculars. Her son though that she was lying and her eyes need treatment.Another conflict is when her son argued with her mother regarding her going for eye treatment. In the end the mother passed away.

1)How is motherhood presented in any two stories in the collection?

In Mid Autumn the mother cares alot for her daughter,it can be seen from her actions, such as adding her daughter's favourite ingredients into the mooncake and buying her lanturn. She works hard as a primary school teacher while her father does not.

In Paper, at the end of the story the mother paid for the funeral and specialy made his dream house out of paper for him even though her son did not treat her well during his life.

Choose two stories that reveal the thinking of an older generation of singaporeans. What new insights have you gained from such a revelation?

Mid Autumn


The mother is very old-fashioned and traditional because she still believes very much in the Mid Autumn festival while her daughter is more mordenized and does not believe in it as much as her parents.The mother also has an outdated thinking because she thinks that her daughter should lead a more normal life as a normal Singaporean.Her daughter, on the other hand thinks that she should lead her life as the way she wants to lead it.For example,the daughter wants to go to Uganda to help out despite her mother's wish for her to go to university and get a job.

Tanjong Rhu

The mother likes to think alot about her past and cherish them while the son is more morden thinking and looks more to the present and the future.The mother also like to think about her husband(which is the son's father).Her son,on the other hand,tries to forget his father who is gone.Addtionally,when the mother looks at the mordenized Tanjong Rhu she sees the old-fashioned port which she recognized sometime back.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Literature Holiday assignment

Story: Evening Under Frangipani

Internal Conflicts

· Internal conflicts :Prakash is having intense fear about the interview and showing physical sighs ( pg 47,first paragraph)

· Internal conflict: Elaine cursed about her foolishness and also Prakash

(pg 58)

External conflicts

· External conflicts :Elaine is talking a issue of marriage that imposed by the society (pg49)

Climax

· When Prakesh jokes about Elaine’s father (pg 62 to pg 63)

Resolution

· Open Ended

Characters

1)Prakash

  • He is a nervous-wreck (during job interview , pg 47)

  • He is competent (pg 48-49)

2)Elaine

  • She is a feminist (pg49-50)

  • She is caring (pg 53)

3)Elaine’s father

  • He care more about his collection of insect rather than his own family (pg 55)

  • He is passionate about insects (pg 55)

The most interesting segment is when Prakesh goes for first interview at the starting of the story. Prakesh start to feel uncomfortable and start to sweat a lot, making his whole body feel sweaty.

Story: Lee

External Conflicts

· External Conflict: Lee and her father argue about her walkman matter (pg 87,line 10 to line 14)

· External conflict between lee and her father (pg 91, line 7 to line 15)

Internal conflict

· Internal Conflict :Lee asked her father why he never wrote (pg 91,line 1)

Climax

· When Lee’s father found lee and Holden Mankiewicz in his bedroom (pg 103)

Resolution

· Complete resolution

Characters

1)Lee

  • She likes music a lot ( listens to music wherever she goes (pg 87,line 10 to line 12)

  • She is a sarcastic person the way she talks to he father (pg 87, first paragraph)

  • She also a healthy person (pg 91,last second paragraph)

  • She also quite a rude person (Pg 90, line 17 )

2)Lee’s father

  • He got jealous easily when Lee talked about piscopo, (pg88,last paragraph)

· He does not like to pay attention (pg 98,line12)

3)Alan

  • He didn’t feel up to the responsibilities of fatherhood (pg 89,line 7)

· He dresses like a trucker(pg 89,second paragraph)

  • He sometimes get a bit of a pretentious creep(pg 89,second paragraph, last line)

The most interesting segment is when Lee visited her grandmother during a family reunion. Which made her grandmother very happy to see her, and Lee talked about everything she did in her country.

Story: Release

External Conflicts

· External conflict :Between Eileen and her new neighbour (pg 139, last paragraph )

· External conflict :Between Eileen and her husband (pg 140, last few lines to pg 141, first paragraph)

· External conflict: Between Eileen and her neighbour (pg 141,line 15 to line 23)

Climax

· It is when the puppies started whining and whimper in the night (pg 143,last line)

Resolution

· Ironic resolution

Characters

1)Eileen

  • She is friendly person ( pg 139, first paragraph )

· She is also forgetful person (pg 141, line 1 to line 9)

· She also a persistent person (pg 143 ,line 1 to line 13 )

2)Philip

  • He listen to his wife (pg 142,line 1 to line 6)

  • He finds work more important than his gardens matters (pg 145, line 7 to line 12)

3)Neighbours

(Wife and husband)

  • She is a impatient person (pg 139,line 18)

· She also very rude person the way she speak about Eileen (pg 139, line 19 to line 21)

  • She and her husband talk rude word to Eileen, (the wife, pg 140 ) and (her husband, pg 142)

The most interesting segment is when Eileen told the man to move the kennel to another side. So that she and her baby can finally get some sleep but the man mistaken what she said and killed the puppies with the spanner. Eileen was shocked and her heart froze.

Story: Pastime

Internal Conflicts

  • Mr Lee and himself ( he thought that Tai Poh has stop telling the story but he just keep quite to himself, pg 215)i
  • The man in the Tai Poh’s story that the man do nit have the courage to go to the woman ( the man finds it difficult to go to the woman and ask the question that he wants to know, pg 216)

External confict

· Mr Lee and Tai Poh ( they were telling each other stories and suddenly Mr Lee asked if they were still friends, pg 217)

Climax

When Mr Lee tell Tai Poh the second story( pg 218)

Resolution

Complete resolution

Mr Lee finishes his story as they reaches the last station line (pg 220)

Characters

Tai Poh

· He is old( he said that old man like him do not do much, pg 212)

· He is a storyteller ( he made up stories about a lot of things, pg 212)

· He is considerate ( he did not disturb or talk to other passenger, pg 212)

Mr Lee

· He is a good listener (he listen to Tai Poh’s story attentively, pg 213)

· He is sarcastic ( he suddenly ask Tai Poh if they were still friend, pg 217)

The most interesting segment is when Tai Poh suddenly stopped telling Mr Lee the story and saw the fat pink scar on the back of Tai Poh’s head.


Story: An Obituary for Fifth Aunt Come Late

Internal Conflicts

Internal conflicts

· Author and herself ( she regretted that she does remember her Aunt better, pg 150)

·

External conflicts

· The grown-up and Aunt ( they do want their children to know their Aunt, pg 149)

· Author’s grandmother and her aunties (grew up in neglect. Favour the boys more, pg 151-152)

Climax

When the war came ( pg 156)

Resolution

Characters

Aunt

· She is timid ( spoke did so in rat-a-tat fashion, spewing out words that were closely guarded, in a loud but uncertain voice, pg 150)

· She get panic easily ( could calm herself with a trip to the kitchen sink, plowing her hand into dishes and dish-soiled water, pg 150)

· She is literate (

· She is hardworking ( pg 157)

Author

· She is mean ( she does not want to make it a point that she is a her niece, pg 149)

· She is judgmental ( she likes to judge her Aunt by listening to other people, pg 159)

The most interesting segment is when Aunt became a daughter again, the Fifth Sister and the Fifth Aunt. They had a small ceremony to welcome. It seems that they reunited again after many years.

Story: A History of Tea

Internal Conflicts

· Author and herself ( when the car was going along the old lane, she found it similar enough to conjure her memory, pg113)

· Beverly and herself (even though she had meet Tien Yee before, she cannot remember when they meet for the second time , pg 115)

·

External conflicts

· Grandmother and Uncle Raja ( grandmother does not like Uncle Raja because he ‘stole’ her beautiful daughter, pg 111)

· Grandmother and Aunt Sherrie (even on her deathbed, grandmother does not want to forgive Aunt Sherrie, pg 115

Climax

When Reginald Jones died in a shipwreck in World war two, pg 117

Resolution

Open ended resolution.

Characters

Narrator

(Tien Yee)

· She is poor (just tall mug with blue on white bamboo pattern and cover to help it brew, beaded on its underside with water, pg 109)

· She is look at Beverly very detail ( pg 109)

· She is very curious about her family (

Grandmother

· She is racist ( in grandmother’s eye, Uncle Raja (black man) stole her daughter ( white woman) pg 111)

· She is mean and harsh ( she create story that Uncle Raja is the evil oily man , pg 112)

· She is stubborn ( she does not want to forgive Aunt Sherrie, pg 115)

Beverly

· She is rich ( trimmed at the top and base in a blue and gold pattern – Japanese imitating Royal Doultan pg 109)

· She is boastful ( she say that she studies nineteenth and twenties centuries Chinese history and then take a sip of tea, pg 111)

· She is ungrateful ( she wants to be independent but she say that Tien Yee’s family always controlling her and look after her, pg 112)

· She is ambitious ( she plan to study in Oxford or Cambridge , pg 114)

The most interesting segment is when Beverly told the author that she wanted to get engaged with a guy that she met in Oxford but her parents did not allow this relationship because of his religion being Jewish.