, I refolded the paper back into Laohu. I cradled him in the crook of my arm, and as he purred, we began the walk home.
Jack refolds the story back into its origami form of Laohu, the tiger, symbolizing his acceptance of his heritage.
28 Matching Annotations
- Jul 2019
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Then she got up and left, leaving me alone with my mother.
He regrets destroying his bond with his mother, a decision that proved fatal. He begins to find himself in the same position his mother was in before he was brought into the world: longing for tangible evidence that his past was real and valid.
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But then you were born! I was so happy when I looked into your face and saw shades of my mother, my father, and myself. I had lost my entire family, all of Sigulu, everything I ever knew and loved. But there you were, and your face was proof that they were real. I hadn’t made them up
This story is so sad to me, she really loved her son and saw so much of her own family in him since she had lost every one and then she pretty much lost him because he wanted nothing to do with her. I can't imagine how lonely she must have felt. He was her pride and joy and she lost him because he didnt want to learn the language and live the life that she had.
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f I was caught trying to learn English I was beaten.
Maybe if Jack knew that his mother was beaten when she tried to learn english, he wouldn't have been so hard on her.
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But somehow that chance never came up
This made me very sad. She was so excited to tell her son all about her life but as he grew up he wanted nothing to do with her and didnt care about her.
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The language that I had tried to forget for years came back, and I felt the words sinking into me, through my skin, through my bones, until they squeezed tight around my heart.
He spent so much time trying to forget his Chinese culture and everything that came with it but he realizes sort of that it is always is a part of him.
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A rustle. I looked up and saw that a ball of wrapping paper and torn tape was on the floor next to the bookshelf. I walked over to pick it up for the trash.
I feel like he is now starting to realize that he took for granted his moms tradition and love for origami and he is starting to miss it and the memories that came along with it.
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She tried to hug me the way she saw American mothers do on TV. I thought her movements exaggerated, uncertain, ridiculous, graceless. She saw that I was annoyed, and stopped
This made me sad because she is not trying to be more "American" like and is doing things that she think will make him happy and doing things that he wanted her to do but that still isn't making him happy. She is really trying to make a change and it still isnt enough.
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I packed the paper menagerie in a large shoebox and put it under the bed.
Jack is making this transition to be more "normal", he is kind of starting a new chapter in his life it seems like and he is closing the era of his childhood.
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“Do I have a chink face?”
Another stereotypical word that is used when people describe Asians. He was probably bullied at school and someone called him this.
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I had never thought of Laohu as trash. But looking at him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper.
This comment made me sad because something that he grew up with and had a really fun time playing with he now is starting to have a different view on it based on another persons comment.
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“Do you think he can speak English?
This is a strong assumption to make about the boy before they have even met him. The way they emphasized "he" made me feel like they are saying this is a rude/judgeful way.
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She breathed into her paper animals so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life. This was her magic
This reminded me of when you make a care bear and "kiss the heart" before you put in the the stuffed animal. You give it a piece of you and this reminded of that and how she breathed into the origami.
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She turned the paper over and folded it again. She pleated, packed, tucked, rolled, and twisted until the paper disappeared between her cupped hands. Then she lifted the folded-up paper packet to her mouth and blew into it, like a balloon
The detail on this really brought back my own childhood memories because I remember having an origami book myself and remember using colorful paper to bring the objects to real life. The origami in this text symbols peace for Kan and how it soothes and relaxes him from stopping his crying.
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stevensonuniversity-my.sharepoint.com stevensonuniversity-my.sharepoint.com
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Wouldyouactoutafewverbs
This reminds me of the game charades where you act out different verbs!
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bodyparts,suchaslimbs,digits,andeyes
These sound a lot like us as humas with limbs (arms and legs) digits (fingers) and eyes
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ogographic
a letter, symbol, or sign used to represent an entire word. For example: "$" dollar sign
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And if they put spaces between words, any sentences we write wouldbe a lot more intelligible than any spoken sentence we might splice together omrecordings.”
From what I am understanding, is that they want the heptapods to understand the written language in sentences that we use everyday.
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graphemes
Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. tch or 4 letters e.g ough.
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phonemes
smallest unit of sound
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aborigine
this is a person, animal or plant that has been in a country or region from earliest times
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hoppedaround with their young riding in pouches,
kangaroos
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aborigina
aboriginal means the first people occupied a specified territory
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Only when I replayed the recording of the heptapod’s pronunciationdid I get a confirmation; the heptapod replied with [flutter2], “yes.”
They can only understand when the same language is used between each other
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Aer a long pause, the first heptapodsaid something and then the second one said something else, neither of whose spec-trographsresembledanythingsaidbefore. Icouldn’ttelliftheywerespeakingtoeachother or to me since they had no faces to turn.
This shows how if people dont communicate in the same language then you cant not understand what one another ate saying and it can be confusing.
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spectrograph
Spectrograph: an apparatus for photographing or otherwise recording spectra
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Then it pointed to its companion and fluttered again.
This description reminded me of a butterfly description.
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heptapod
I did not know what a hetapod was so I googled and it said a hetapod are an " intelligent, space faring extraterrestrial species" They are alien creatures which have come to eartch for an unknown reason.
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