50 Questions from Book Titled The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do - Assignment Example

The happiest refugee Prologue Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences Why does Anh call Dad a hypocrite? He believes his dad is a hypocrite because he says him and his mother are happy because he married the right woman yet he left them and their mother he was still young thirteen years. 2. What does Anh actually end up doing when he meets Dad? What are his feelings? He engages in a conversation with his dad, laughs and feigns enjoyment. Although he keeps wondering if he should head butt his dad or not, wonders who the woman that opens the door is, if the baby is his kid and what a shitty place his dad lives in. He is feeling confused inside and seething with anger and hatred and violence 3. Why do you think Anh calls Dad “self-destructive” on page v? His dad deliberately harms himself by taking a lot of alcohol leading to tumor in the head 4. Reread the last paragraph of the Prologue. Do you think Anh will stop visiting Dad? Why or why not? Yes. He believes his dad having tumor is a lot to deal with and he will just let the whole visiting thing go Chapter 1 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. How did Mum fall in love with Dad? When the dad asks the guards who were searching his mother to stand back. The dad acted in defiance of the guards and in defense of the mother 2. How did Dad save Uncle Thanh and Uncle Huy? He walked into the remote re-education camp dressed as a high-ranking communist officer and took uncle thanh and uncle Huy out right through the front gate 3. Was Dad being brave or reckless? Or both? Explain. Both brave and reckless ,stealing a uniform in the face of extreme danger and managing to save the two uncles from the harsh environment they were living in the re-education center disguised as a high ranking official 4. Read the following phrases and discuss how they relate to the stories about Dad in Chapter 1. (Modified from “Grace Under Pressure” NYTimes.com) (a) Bravery is doing the right thing despite the strong fear of personal loss. He was brave enough to save the two uncles despite the knowledge that he may be found and killed (b) Bravery is recklessness contextualized in myth. In the face of extreme danger he managed to save the two uncles (c) Bravery is doing the right thing, at considerable risk, while no one is looking. Asking vu to steal a uniform and paper work when his uncle is gone and dressing disguised as a high –ranking official and going right into the commanding officers room and saving the two uncles Chapter 2 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What saved Khoa from the second pirate attack? The dad screamed at the top of his lungs saying they will fight to death to save the child, and everyone stood up against the pirates and decide they will fight to the end. Thus the head pirate ordered the man dangling Khoa to free him 2. What eventually saved everyone on the boat? The gallon of water given to them by the young pirate 3. It is ironic that the second pirate attack saved everyone. Explain why the situation is ironic. The pirates are supposed to attack the refugees and rob them of their belonging and kill them but instead he saves their lives by the gallon of water that bought them an extra day 4. Have you ever experienced a bad situation (e.g. car breaking down) that eventually turned into good fortune? Describe your experience and explain what you have learned from it. The bus I had booked to travel home that day, left early before I could board so I was left behind. After a ten minutes drive report reached us that the bus tyre had burst and people were injured. Learnt that everything happens for a reason, we should learn to be patient Chapter 3 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What made Anh’s family exclaim, “What a great country!” in Chapter 3? Give 2 specific examples from the chapter. Because they had managed to get in a country that was good and they could call their second home. a] two siley nuns from St.vincent de Paul came and gave their family a huge garbage bag stuffed of clothes for free b]if one got sick, goes to the doctor for free 2. Why do you think the family was so grateful and happy? Because the country gave them a second chance to life. Their father got a job at a factory, a good house ,nice clothes and they were able to feed 3. Do you agree with the following quotation? Why or why not? "The secret to happiness is realistic, modest expectations." — Barry Schwartz (“The Pursuit Of Happiness” NPR.org) Yes. Because expectations that are attainable/achievable and practical can always happen and if good/positive leads to happiness Chapter 4 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. On page 72, Anh writes, "[Dad] always had big plans for making big money." What does this statement indicate about Dads personality? Ambitious. He is very hardworking to achieve his dreams 2. What is Dads favorite Vietnamese saying? Do you think it is a good motto to live by? Why or why not? ‘there is only two times in life,theres now and there’s too late’ It is a good motto to live by because it describes his outlook of life 3.What happened to the familys duck farm? How is this event related to Dads personality and motto? several thousands of ducks died. They had taken a feed that was dodgy. since he was ambitious wanted the best for his ducks, he bought dodgy feeds that led to their death The quote is applicable in that it was too late to save the ducks that had died. Chapter 5 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1.Anh writes that Mum always used to say “doesn’t matter.” Why does Anh love this? He relates it to what they had to experience from when they were at sea up to present life. It sounded like a real honest-to-good ‘doesn’t matter’ 2. How did Anh’s parents react to their children’s failure? Their dad was always positive ,even a little bit over the top when they failed 3. Do you think the parent’s attitude toward their children’s failure had a positive effect? Why or why not? Yes. They tried their best at all times to succeed armored with the knowledge that their parents had full belief in them 4. Read the following excerpt. How is it related to the reading? Do you agree that failure is a good thing? Why or why not? Yes. It helps one identify the factors that affected their success and learn from them. Their dad believed failure was positive and helped them identify where they were going wrong and made them work harder to be successful Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematical victory. First-time success is usually a fluke. First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order of things. Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If youve spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility their failures gave them. (“Failure Is a Good Thing” NPR.org) Chapter 6 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What led to Dad’s downfall and made him to walk out on his family? The guilt of losing his brothers fortunes. The guilt was eating him away 2. How did Anh react to the change in his Dad? He was confused and hated his dad for hitting him and his mother. He was violent 3. Think about this common expression: guilt eats away at you. What does it mean? Do you think it applies to Dad? Explain your thoughts with details from the reading. Guilt keeps haunting you, its always in your in mind and you’re always conscious. After losing his brothers fortunes he felt guilty and he decided to go into drinking Chapter 7 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. Explain “the socio-economic mismatch” that Anh experienced as a high school student. Private school expenses versus single mothers wages. The school expenses was very high, buying of new uniforms, textbooks etc as compared to the little money his mother was making from sewing clothes. 2. How did Mrs. Borny encourage and inspire Anh? She believed rejects weren’t hopeless and started to run her own drama classes. She taught them how to write drama, creating stories from scratch. He believed he was his own real life version of robin Williams character in dead poets society. 3. Mum continued to help others despite having difficulties supporting her own family. How did this affect Anh? He had a horrible feeling of shame and desperation. He was not able to purchase books that were required at school, this lowered his self-esteem, could not admit to not having books or uniforms required in school but instead lied. He claimed he learned life experiences from the people his mother supported and it was incredibly rich and varied form of wisdom that those people gifted them with Chapter 8 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What did Mum do for the bus driver? She comforted the scared old man and told him ‘my son okay. No worry’ 2. What did Anh make of his boring part-time job at the post office? What does it reveal about his personality? a]there was overtime pay i.e. double-time pay or even half pay b]he had good knowledge of postcodes and that was a very cool party trick he is resilient; he is not overcome by situations 3. Why did Anh decide to make Dad pay for leaving the family? He left them with no one to protect them especially in the instance when they sewing machines were stolen at the back of the house Chapter 9 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. Why did Anh describe the law firm job interview at Anderson as “a hellishly intimidating experience”? It had an intense recruitment process; sending resumes and two rounds of interviews which took three days. One was being watched while eating, sleeping and showering 2. What questions did Anh ask Dave Grant that made him to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian? a]how many hours he worked b]how much the comedians make 3. At the engagement party, the two families came together and had a huge banquet. Anh describes it as “a truly multicultural meal” on page 232. What does multicultural mean? Provide your own an example of a multicultural experience. Multicultural means several cultural beliefs/activities/set-ups. Marriage; when people of different cultures come together to live as husband and wife Chapter 10 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1.Who were the audience for the terrifying gig? Why did Anh call it “the greatest gift”? a crowd that had two hundred old drunk guys. He called it great because he was performing for people commemorating the death of Vietnam and Korea fallen brothers in World War 2 2. What was Suzie’s reaction to the security guard’s racist comments? How was it different from Ahn’s reaction? Intolerant and incensed; suzie couldn’t keep herself from confronting the guard and was extremely angry while ahn on the other hand was calm and tolerant; he didn’t react to the racism comments of the guard. 3. How would to react to the above situation if you were Ahn? Why? Two wrongs don’t make a right. So I would compose myself in front of the guard and the crowd but report the matter to the manager to talk to the guard so he doesn’t display such character again. Chapter 11 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. Mum and Dad always told Anh and Khoa that they should give back to the country that gave them a second chance. How did this influence them? What did Anh and Khoa do? Give a specific example form the chapter. They developed the motive to give in kind to other people. They did fair bits of charity work. 2003,both of them volunteered for a charity called ‘open family ‘ where they started a ten week course of drama classes at risk street youth 2. Why did Khoa dislike the idea of trying out for Young Australian of the Year? How did Anh convince Khoa? He only loved doing good things to people but not being acknowledged for it. He hated show offs, fan-fares and fakes. Ahn convinced him that if he won he could do more good for more people. More kids would benefit from this work. 3. What made Anh determined to win the Dancing with the Stars competition? The profound of gratitude for his life and that of his mother and the joy it brought to his family of being in the show Chapter 12 Questions Directions: Write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. How did Anh convince Khoa to go see Dad? By telling him to go show his dad how irrelevant he was in his life by showing off his trophy from the young Australian of the year and telling him to stick it up his arse 2. What eventually healed Khoa and Tram? The fact that they finally went to see their dad ,they forgave him and that allowed them to leave behind anger and memories of a violent drunken father. 3. After seeing all his children, what happens to Dad’s health problems? His health improved slowly. He responded well to treatment. 3. At the end of the chapter, what does Anh say about his parents? He thanks his parents and says he is happy because of them. He says his parents set off on a boat trip many years ago to provide their children and grandchildren a better life. Reference Read More