Anh Do - Winner of Australian Literary Prize 2011

Who did Anh’s father rescue from the concentration camp?

a)      His eldest son who would later become Young Australian of the Year

b)      His wife’s two brothers who had worked for the Australian military

c)       Two of the armed guards at the camp who were really employees of the Australian military and were in disguise.

2.       What was the length of the fishing boat in which they escaped and how many people were on it?

a)      40 metres long with 9 people

b)      9 metres long with 40 people

c)       20 metres long with 20 people

3.       What honour was Anh’s brother given in 2005?

a)      Australian Refugee of the Year

b)      Australian of the Year

c)       Young Australian of the Year

4.       What was the main lesson which Anh’s parents insisted that he learn after coming to Australia? The main lesson was for the boys to get involved with as much as they could so they could give back to the country who gave their family a second chance.

5.       Why was Anh able to attend a prestigious school like St Aloyisius?

a)      He worked in a sweatshop to earn enough money to pay his fees

b)      He won a half scholarship

c)       St Aloyisius always takes in a certain number of refugees as part of their charity work

6.       Explain how Anh tried to overcome the problem of having no text books for his lessons.

7.       Describe what he wore instead of the official sports uniform.

8.       True or false:

a)      His mother earned less than $7 an hour as a cleaner in a hotel.  T   or  F

b)      At school, Anh was the class clown and this was when he knew he had a future as a comedian.    T   or   F

c)       He was often punished at school with a strap.    T   or   F

d)      No-one at school knew at the time that Anh and his family were poor.  T   or   F

e)      Anh’s father left the family when Anh was growing up.   T   or  F

9.       What did Anh study at University?

a)      Fine Arts, majoring in Drama

b)      Law

c)       Pure Mathematics

10.   What did Anh do for his mother when he was only 23 years old?

a)      Gave her money for a holiday back in Vietnam

b)      Arranged for her to come and see his first public performance as a comedian

c)       Bought her a house

11.   How old was Anh at the time of this interview?

a)      30

b)      33

c)       40

12.   What was the motto which Anh’s father taught his children to live by?

 They were told to do as much as they can to give back to Australia who gave them a second chance

13.   Was Anh the victim of racism as he grew up?

14.   Write ONE extra question which you would like Adam to have asked Anh, and what do you think the answer would have been?

Wei-Lei and Me (Aditi Gouvernel)

Wei-Lei and Me (Aditi Gouvernel)

1.  What word in the opening sentence means ‘short and flat’? Pug nose

2.  What is so ‘Australian’ about Barry West? Barry is described to have the red stained face like Australian Summers.

3.  What is the opening interaction between the two characters about? Barry and the author are fighting becuase Barry thinks she is dirty becuase of her Indian background.

4.  What is the protagonist’s home country? Delhi India.

5.  What word means “noble and splendid”? (p75) aristocratic

6.  In what way is the protagonist’s home country “aristocratic”? Delhi described by the author with it's Places, towers and temples seems very aristocratic. 

7.  Where did the protagonist’s father move his family to? Why? The authors father moved the family because he felt that there was no opportunity in Delhi. In Australia being such empty nation had lots of opportunity for the family.

8.  What is the protagonist’s attitude towards the citizenship ceremony? (pp75-6) The author didn't really think the ceremony meant that much as she 'Met Australia' in the playground.

9.  How is Barry West the antagonist? Barry West is the antagonist because he is the character who is in conflict with the author who is the protagonist.

10.What is the irony of the comments made by Amy and Cris? (p76)The irony of the comments are that Amy and Cris are discriminating the author to be 'dirty' becuase of her Indian background despite both of them being of Eastern European decent telling from their last names.

11.What is “you have to face the world” a metaphor for? (p76) This means that no matter what happens you have to experience it whether its good or bad becuase that's just what happens in life.

12.What is the teacher’s hair compared to? Is this an example of a metaphor or simile? (p77) The teachers hair is compared to a halo, this is an example of a metaphor becuase she isn't saying its like a halo she is saying a halo.

13.How is the children’s cruel creativity put into action once Wei-Lei arrives? (p77) The childrens cruel creativity is an obvious cliche of children changing around people's name into something funny. Wei-Lei making his name sound like pee.

14. Explain the relevance of the ‘cat and toy’ metaphor. (p77) The relevance of this metaphor is a true indicator of the kids brutality. Their cat like actions are a strong description of their harsh treatment of Wei-Lei.

15.How does the children’s cruel creativity have a more sinister side? The childrens cruel creativity could well as be an indicator or a dark side to them which gives the reader an idea to feel fear for this person in the future.

16.What does the protagonist mean by “the afternoon passed like a death sentence”? (p78) The author meant that all day she was worried of what might happen becuase of what she had done to Barry. There was always that adrenaline feeling when you know something bad might happen in the future.

17.Why does the protagonist see everything Indian “lit by a spotlight”? (p78) When she goes home after being so heavily evolved with the tradition of Australia as soon as she comes home she realised how traditional her family is.

18.How does the story build to a climax? (p79) The story builds to a climax by giving us the cliche version of a immigrant working hard through tough times to success. We see through the harshness of the authors childhood and how it turns to a more positive and better life as the author grows up.

19.What is the irony of Barry’s fate? (p80) The irony of Barry's fate is how he made fun or and discriminated the authors Indian background and where he's going is going to be very similar people to the author.

20.Explain what the protagonist means by “as our faces changed, so did Canberra” (p81). The author means as they grew up and became more mature their lives changed in Canberra to the harshness of school to the wonders of university and what they wanted to do for a living and how they wanted to live their lives.

21.What do you think the protagonists’ definition of being Australian would be? (p81) I think the authors definition of being Australia is feeling a sense of belonging. I think once the author fitted into society and did the little things like go to the cafe everyday and go to the bar and talk with her friends after many years she had finally felt like she belonged, therefore her idea of being Australian.

why does it matter?

Anzac Day by James Chong pg239 

In this story the author presents a confronting experience of a boy in highschool who was born in Australia but has grown up in an Asian family trying to fit in society by taking part in Australia's tradition.


What is most important about this story is that it gives confronting experience about how a boy who was constantly taking part of Australia's traditions is totally shut out of Australia's heritage. "I was not allowed to be apart of the Anzac Tradition" This experience really defies the stereotypical view of Immigrants carrying on their own tradition in a different country. We are shown how the ABC denies a person of a Asian background the right to take part of this tradition.

The irony in this story is when ABC comment on the picture of the author in his kilt playing the bagpipes "true blue?" we can understand why immigrants wouldn't want to be like a country full people who stereotype people based on their looks. Essentially are the actions of the ABC against the author "True Blue?"

The importance of this story is it removes the cliche version of a immigrant who overcome exclusion by handwork over time and really focus's on the problem. The result to this story is the reader is left wondering how can a whole nation support the idea of excluding a certain people which make us understand the struggle of living in society.

why does it matter?

Read any story that we haven't read yet and write a review of the story and explain why it matters. Why should anyone care about the story/read it?

Papa Bear pg 183 

In this story the author talks about his father how he grew up through primary school and what he did throughout highschool and in university before he moved to Australia. He talks about how his dad lived a very dangerous rebellious type life in Shanghai begining with starting to smoke and 14 and soon joining a gang in highschool. The author describes how has father was like and he he treated him throughout the authors school life and how his life was with his parents mainly focusing on his dad. Also the author  really honestly describes his father and how even though he was involved in so much wrong and how ironic the authors father's personality was how the author still looks up to him.

I think people should take the time to read this story becuase the author makes a very interesting description about his father and this reiterates how important role models are for kids. "In primary school, my dad would coat his daily homework sheets in a thin layer of wax so he could scrape off the teacher's big tick and hand in the same sheet again another" The author cleverly depicts his father as someone who always cheats in life and what is important is that throughout the story when we learn about all the bad things the author's father has done throughout his life it is interesting to see how even in different cultures this story being an Asian culture the author still looks up to his father as a role model.

Also another reason why I think you should take the time to read this story is the author has used humor to describe his life and the adventures his parents had in university and how they met which give the story a bit of spark and make it very interesting to read. "Considering my dad looked like an anorexic Chinese mafia messenger, it's a wonder he pulled at all. Mum says she saw a kind of heart. She wears glasses" The author successfully uses humor to describe how his father's personality was. We get evidence that the author is really insulting his father but really we can infer he is just stating how he was and what kind of character he had.

Lastly the most important reason why you should take the time to read this story is based upon the very last page of the story. When the author uses repetition to describe the last few characteristics of his father. "This is the same man who used to mix a little whiskey with my milk to pacify me, the same man who recorded me snoring when I was six and played the audio everyday like it was a top 40 CD" what is very  important becuase it is evident to see in the story is this Asian family is very different to a typical Australian family becuase of what the father experienced growing up is pretty rare but it is especially rare to see despite all this the author still wants to be exactly like his father. "He's the same, yet he continues to surprise me. He's my dad. And I want to grow up to be just like him"

Assessment notes

* Another cultural perspective
cultural naunces
immigrant struggles
greater insight
Historical perspective
Evokes sympathy
Common themes
Belonging- Racism
struggle
family
motivations

My First Kiss by Lian Low

1. How does the author describe Malaysia in regards to showing affection? The author describes Malaysia as a place were showing affection for another person is illegal. Which makes us conclude that people in society don't really show any affection towards each other at all due to strict censorship.

2. What happens to the author when she hits puberty? At the start of puberty the Author starts to become very shy and self conscious about herself. She retreats from the tom boy childhood that she lived and starts to literally escape to the atic in her house to be alone.

3. What is the author’s experience at school when she first arrives to Melbourne? The author experiences the new culture that she has been thrown into. At the start of school she experiences the xenophobia of the Australian school kids which is why she feels so alone. She is only approached by the students who were overseas born Asians as none of the white kids took an interest in her.

4. What is it that made the author feel that she wasn’t Australian even though she spoke English fluently? Since the author wasn't born in Australia she had grown up with the culture of Australia in her childhood. So when she came to Australia after living in Kuala Lumpur all her childhood this meant that she had to conform into a society that she wasn't used to in the peak of her childhood. The author also had an accent from growing up in Kuala Lumpur which also gave her a sense of not fitting in so we can understand her lack of confidence from living in a different country during puberty which resulted in the author having the mindset she was different to everyone else.

5. What else was it about the author that further alienated her from her peers? When the author tells another girl that she is in love with kd lang her friends suddenly put pressure on her to be straight rather than being the person she is. This peer pressure that she was placed under made her confused about her sexuality which started with her peers.

6. What does the use of description like ‘crash hot’ do to the audience’s perception of the author? As an audience people may think that using language which is typically 'try hard' modern language is strange for someone who has grown up in a different country. So from this we get the sense that the author is not begin herself due to her trying to fit in.

7. What opportunity does university give the author? What is it about university which would allow her to express herself more freely? Through the university the author was able to have the opportunity to write and perform. When the author is given a short film project this gives her a great opportunity to express herself through creativity in this work.

8. What role does creativity play for the author? Why do you think that creativity would be so important to her? Creativity for the author was the key to unlock her confidence about being a person and having a sense of belonging. Creativity for the author was so important becuase she was able to overcome her lack of confidence through writing and performance to explore her multiple identities and to gain acceptance from her family and her peers.

Teenage Dreamers by Phillip Tang

1. What are the first two sentences of the story and how do they create a tension in the story? When the author says that father has a sixth sense for death this creates tension because we feel that the story is going to be revolving around death. This sentence does that by giving the reader a feeling of suffering which also contributes to tension given off.

2. What has happened to the author’s father as a result of his wife’s death? The author's father has become obsessed with Leslie Cheung also father has become very emotional and feeling a bit of loneliness.

3. How does the description of the father removing his hands from his face as ‘unmasked’ related to the seriousness of his following statement? Since father has been so emotional when the authors mother left him when he unmasked his face to the author, this gives us a sense that he had gotten rid of all the extra emotion and spoken in all seriousness. Also the fact that his following statement was about the person he was most obsessed about gives us evidence that he is serious about what he cares about.

4. Consider how the father lives his life and conducts himself and the other people in the theatre for the film the author and his father are watching. How does this relate to the title of the story? Since Father is so lonely becuase his wife left him and in the cinema he was crying and acting like a mess. This behavior is a symbol for the stereotypical image of a teenage girl crying over a pop star or over a movie this relates to the image of teenage dreamers

Conversations with my Parents by Oanh Thi Tran

1. What is ironic about the way the author and the father become close? What has to happen to the father? What was ironic about the way the author became close was the author didn't talk to father for a long time becuase what father thought about the Author's behavior. So when Father became sick the Author would spend long hours at the hospital be his side to prove what a dutiful person she was.

2. How would you characterise the conversation that the author has with her parents? I would characterize the conversation as lacking in emotion. I feel the author doesn't really have a strong connection with her family.

3. What is it that worries the author most about these conversations? What worries the author is because she is so far away from her family she feels that she should still keep a strong connection with them. But becuase the conversations are so short and lacking of emotion she feels worried about they relationship between herself and her family.

4. There is a gap between the author’s need to express feelings common in western countries and her family’s lack of desire to express their feelings verbally. How does the family still express their feelings for their child, just not verbally? It is obvious the family don't have the ability to communicate their feeling about their child being away from home but we still do get evidence of the feeling expressed by the family. When Mother talks about cooking the dishes crab and banh xeo the mother remembers that these two dishes were her favorites and she trying to communicate through previous happiness of the Authors life with the family.

Lessons from my School Years by Ray Wing-Lun

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.

The Early Settlers by Ken Chau

techniques: pun, alliteration, vulgar slang, ambiguous pronouns

1. How does this title refer to two groups of ‘settlers’? Who are they? The title can refer to the earliest of settlement of Australia being the Europeans and the aboriginals

2. How is the first line of the poem successful at being ‘forceful’ regarding the Great-Grandfather’s presence in Australia? The poem's first line is so forceful in Great- grandfathers presence in Australia becuase it is so short and straight to the point.

3. What action are the ‘early settlers’ doing that gives them equally a strong presence? The action of entrenching which could mean preparing to defend their position of land give then equally as strong presence of the new settlers arriving. 'Arrive' being in conflict with 'entrench'

4. How is the intention of the Great-Grandfather juxtaposed to the beliefs of the ‘early settlers’? The intention of Great grandfather is to grow corn, cabbage and tobacco. Since the early settlers already entrenched we can infer there is no space for great grandfather to plant.

5. What action does the Great-Grandfather do that ties him both to the ‘early settlers’ and to his own culture? When great grandfather calls the early settlers a foreign devil this ties him and his culture also becuase he is also a foreigner.
6. How does this short poem highlight the irony of the hatred that immigrants experience when they come to a 'settled' land like Australia? This poem highlights the irony even today when immigrants come to Australia are getting judged by the people who one way or another are mostly immigrants anyway.

The Relative Advantages of Learning my Language by Amy Choi

The author makes us consider what it really means about understanding someone's language? What basic human skill/ability is the author highlighting that cuts across all cultures? The author highlights how important it is if you are in a family that speaks a different language to learn and be able to carry on the culture of our family.

 Describe a time when you were at fault for not communicating with someone because of your own selfishness or lack of compassion.
When a couple of years ago I was watching TV on a Sunday night and my mum came to ask me to help her with emails on her computer and I refused and becuase of this she wasn't able to contact a builder for renovations for our house.

1. The author opens the story with an anecdote. What is the anecdote and what effect does it have on the reader? The anecdote at the start of the story gives us the effect of sympathy for the grandfather who is trying to communicate to the Author but she is not letting him.

2. What is the author’s view of the Chinese language in the 2^nd paragraph? The author feels that there is no point bothering to learn Chinese becuase they live in Australia.

3. What is symbolic about the house that the Grandfather mistakes for his own? What does it say about the assimilation of his family into Australian culture? What does it say about his understanding of Australian culture? What is ironic about the inhabitants of this house? What is symbolic about the house is the description of the timber mailbox and the ford falcon out front makes it sound like it was a normal Australian home. This says the the family has become a normal Australian family despite Asian background. The grandfathers understanding of Australian culture in my opinion is very limited becuase he believes that Australians are Australians becuase of what their house looks like and what kind of things they own rather than the culture of the family. What is ironic about the people who live in the house is that they are not even Australian they are Pakistani.

4. What does the death of her grandfather inspire the author to do? The death or her grandfather inspires her to master the spoken language of Chinese.

5. Why is she motivated to know Chinese? What is it she wants to ensure she is able to, regretting that she couldn’t do it with her grandfather? She is motivated to learn Chinese becuase she now understands how she ignored her grandfather and how she feels bad about what she did. So time an elderly person or a Chinese only speaking person wants her to listen she is not only willing be able too.

Growing Up Asian in Australia: Intro + Pigs Questions

Introduction by Alice Pung

1. What were Asian-Australians referred to as when the author was growing up? Power points referring to power sockets being their faces.

2. How does she interpret this title? She interprets this title as positive because she thought it referred to the Asian people as being so smart and having electrifying brain power.

3. What did this title actually refer to? Did the author find this demeaning? Why/why not? The title actually referred to the way a power socket represented the facial features of an Asian person. The author didn't really find this offensive becuase she thought of the power socket as a sort of cute face similar to the ones she was reading in her books.

4. ‘All that untapped potential! All that electrifying brain power!’ What techniques are being employed by the author? How does they highlight he misunderstanding? The author has used personification to use the title that the kids at school have given to the Asian's and turned it into a complement on how smart Asian people are. This highlights misunderstanding becuase she has analyzed and personified a title given by kids further proving how smart she is rather than just realizing that it was an insult.

5. What did the teen author take away from teen fiction? What did she feel that she needed to do? Why?  The teen fiction that she was reading gave her the idea that she needed extensive plastic surgery. Instead she stopped reading those books becuase she felt she needed a more extensive view about what it is like to experience 'firsts' in life. What does this say is essential to fitting in to a culture? It gives us the sense that an understanding a mixture of people's different experiences is essential to trying to fit into a culture

6. Who are the authors that she turns to? Why? She turned to authors John Marsden and Robert Cormier who wrote with honesty and feeling about coming of age. She decided a view that was written from personal experiences rather than an observer would be better to understanding how to fit into a culture.

7. In the third paragraph how does the author use repetition. How does it highlight the focus of this book? The author uses repetition in the word 'first' this highlights the focus of the book is the moment people have doing something for the first time.

8. What metaphor does the author use to highlight the writers and the writing style in the third paragraph? "distant observers, plucking the most garnish fruit from the lowest hanging branches of an exotic cultural tree"

9. Why does the author use a quote in the 4^th paragraph? What does it say about her reaction to the stories in the book? "Change only the name and this story is also about you" This implies that all the stories from all the different people the author can relate to from her own experiences.

10. On page 2 the author talks about the themes that she loosely choose for the collection. What are they and why is it ironic that they show up in this book? The themes such as helping family life, striving for a career and growing up are some of the themes explored in the book. What is ironic about these themes that they are all traits that have been worthy of collective national pride so this shows us the Asian people beyond the stereotype.

11. At the bottom of pg 3 on to page 4 the author says that sociologists have described Asians as the ‘model minority’. What is meant by this? What difficulties arise out of this label for young Asian-Australians? The term 'model minority' mean a people that are dominant  and who are the model for all people to strive for. This label puts immense pressure on the young Asian-Australians who are judged weather they are successful or not.

12. What are the editor’s hopes for the collection of stories? The editors hope of this book is to answer the key questions about identity and for people through the collection of stories to understand a sense of belonging

Pigs from Home by Hop Dac

1. How does the author start this story which is in direct contrast to the title of the story? What effect does this have on the reader and their expectations of the story? The author starts this story by giving us a sense that he or she isn't writing about a story about living in Australia but is more giving us an experience which is represented by the use of animals. This effect gives the reader the idea that the story has a deeper meaning.

2. What core Vietnamese value is instilled in the author? A self sustaining family

3. What is humorous about the mother’s ‘flair for natural medicine’ in regards to her personality? We get the idea that mother's interest in herbs is funny becuase she doesn't exactly use many of them herself it is more for her friends so it is humorous she is like the herb supplier for all her friends.

4. How does the description of the killing of pigeons continue the style utilised in the introduction of the story? The description of killing pigeons was very harsh this continues the style utilized at the introduction of the story when the author concludes that pigs aren't actually very pleasant animals when talking about its shit.

5. What is the author’s opinion of pigs? Give two quotes to support your conclusion. The author really doesn't like pigs. "No pig has ever been a friend of mine" "repugnant beast, the pig"

6. In the paragraph on pgs 53-54, give two examples of alliteration employed by the author. 'Feeding frenzy' 'blowing raspberries on the bellies of babies'

7. On pg 54 what simile is used to describe pigs? How does this simile work for the situation it is used? "A pig is the like the ocean, don't turn your back on it" This simile works for the situation becuase the simile exactly describes how a pig moods fluctuate and how quickly the duck was attack like a wave in the ocean. 

8. What simile does the author use to describe her mother sunning herself? How does this relate to the core focus of the story? The author describes her mother as a chicken on a spit roast getting cooked. This relates to the core theme being animals and food.

9. What does the author describe as ‘the divide between the old world and the new’? What do you think is meant by this statement? What is meant by this statement how different the author is to mother how she runs outside kills an animal and makes it into a dish just like that was normal.

10. What is the author’s reaction to the slaughter of the pig at night? What statement does the author make about the neighbours which displays the way he feels about the whole experience? What is important about including this statement? The authors reaction to the slaughter was quite nerve racking, the author was quite shocked and frozen by the whole experience. When the author talks about the girls next door this is important as we understand the Author cares about how they perceive him. 

11. Why don’t the parents have pigs anymore? How does this relate to the description of the burial of the last pig they owned? The parents don't have pigs anymore becuase of their friends who are pig farmers and they throw pork at them whenever they go over to visit.

12. How would you characterise the description of the mother’s treatment of the pig’s blood? Is it appetising? I would characterize the treatment of the pigs blood as very old fashion, we can infer that the recipe of pigs blood has some health benefit so it has been passed down through the family. It is sliced and put on other dishes.

13. What is ironic about the way the author has a popular Vietnamese dish? What is it about the way the author describes the experience of having pigs that makes it ironic? What is ironic how the author was acting so frozen around the slaughtering of the pig but eats the blood on the dishes normally. What is ironic is the author throughout the story tells us that he hates pigs but without a worry he eats it an a popular dish.

14. How does this story relate to the title Pigs from Home? The story relates how in Australia the family are still carrying on with their traditions with pork and blood in the dishes.

15. Why do you think this story is in the Battlers section of the book? I think the section battler can relate to the struggle the pig had for survival when it was being slaughtered by the men.