1. There is a stark contrast created in the opening of this story between what the narrator had been doing before entering school and what will be expected at school? What is this contrast and what does it immediately create in the story? At the opening of this story the contrast of life before going to school being very relaxed and for the narrator quite boring compared to the deeply disciplined life at school. This immediately creates excitement and it makes the reader anxious about what is going to happen.
2. The author continues this theme of contrast at the start of the story. How does he do this in his description of his experience of Sydney’s North Shore? The author further contrasts life between life in the North shore of Sydney and life we infer back in China. He does this by contrasting the leafy streets and solid brick houses of China to the stretch of shops along the highway.
3. What was the father’s background in business before he opened the fruit shop? What has helped him become successful? The author's father came to Australia when he was seventeen without knowing any English and no business experience. The key to his success was his ability to draw customers in by starting a conversation being always keen to ask people what they wanted.
4. The narrator’s description of his father is complex. What makes the father a complex character? What makes his father a complex character is his attention to detail. The narrator describes how his father would spent long nights recording all the sales down to the last penny and how he would spent long hours practicing his calligraphy in both English and in Chinese.
5. (91) How does the author describe his role in doing ‘things that counted’? The author describes that now that he is going to school he will be able to do something that mattered so he could contribute to the family rather than just sitting around and listening and watching.
6. What experience does the author have at school while keeping to himself? What does he learn from this experience? While he was sitting alone counting the cars going across the highway he got confronted by the biggest kid in his class and he punches him and the stomach and he gets told on. From this experience he then learns to socialize with the other kids and how he made new friends from this fight.
7. How would you characterise the narrator’s tone in regards to the events that are occurring around him? Throughout the narration I notice that they sentences are very short and sharp we can infer the this is trying to have the effect of a young child speaking very fast about what is happening. This could refer to young kids how alert they are at that young age seeing new things and experiencing new things.
8. How does the narrator characterise the ways that one could ‘get the strap’ and ways that one could avoid it? He says that they are many ways you could get the strap not many to avoid it though.
9. What event evokes a racist speech to the class by the teacher? When the narrator sends a letter in to his teacher asking to be excused from the swimming carnival becuase he cant swim the teacher reads the letter out to the whole class and insults him by saying how Chinese people don't contribute to anything and he should leave the school.
10. What effect did the author’s experience with ‘Strap Happy Jack’ have on him? This experience made him even quieter than he was before and becuase he was only one of 4 or 5 Chinese people in the whole school and even the whole chatswood area he was completely alone.
11. What was the one advantage school provided the author? The introduction of Shintaro the Samurai on Australian TV provided him with some value of his Asian background as it was very popular throughout his peers.
12. What did the author do at his school? What was his motivation for doing it? What did he feel was lacking at school? The author became part of the social side of school and his motivation for this is the school was so easy on the students who made the school look good which encouraged lack of motivation. He felt that he was lacking a sense of direction on what he wanted to do with his life and he was very confused in the final year of school coming to the point when you are thinking about what are you going to do for a job.
13. What did the parents want their son to do at school? What did the author fear would happen by obeying his parents? They always wanted a doctor for the family but he was afraid that he hadn't done to work to get the marks to become a doctor and he still wasn't sure what he wanted rather than listening to somebodies else's opinion.
14. At school, what did the author learn about his own type of thinking and how to use it? Throughout his schooling life he learnt how he has different ideas and he just had to wait for opportunities to use the kind of thinking he had.
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