Instruction
“I’m washing my hands of you and Papa in three years! Ten years is the limit! Japan is pau, filial piety is pau!”
“Don’t worry, we won’t depend on you. We’ll depend on Joji and Kiyoshi.”
“Bakatare! You and Papa came here as plantation workers and you’ll die as plantation workers! You haven’t raised yourself one inch! Not one inch! You’ll die on the plantation!”
“Don’t worry, we won’t depend on you. There are Joji and Kiyoshi,” she said.
Filial piety: the important virtue and primary duty of respect, obedience, and care for one’s parents and elderly family members (Dictionary.com)
Pidgin vs. “haole talk” (“regular” English)
Both topics are a themes we see developing in the first 10 chapters (46 pages) of the novel.For your journal this week:
Find a 2-4 paragraph passage (a single continuous passage) on ONE of the two topics and share it with us (i.e. present it before your journal begins). Then, follow with your explication, which should adhere to the same general instructions as laid out on the Journal: Week 3 page:
Explain the theme you’ve chosen to explore (filial piety or Pidgin vs. “haole talk”). Speak generally here; don’t start your discussion of the passage/book yet.
Tell us about the passage you’ve selected to illustrate the theme (summarize the plot).
Describe how the passage illustrates either your chosen theme.
Explain why the passage and the theme are significant to the development of the story as a whole.