Chapter+17

Chapter 17 (pages 192-195) Summary: By Nick McCarthy

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 * **Plot Synopsis of Chapter 17:** Not much happens in chapter 17. This is one of those chapters where not much new happens but Da tries to give insight of how he feels/felt about things that happened. One of the new things that do happen in chapter 17 is that we meet Dia for the first time.
 * **Important Themes and Issues of Chapter 17:** There are a couple of important themes in chapter 17. Some of the most important are Da not wanting to smoke anymore because of the way he sees Dia as so disgusting because of what smoking has done to him (See 2nd Quote). He does not want to turn into Dia. Another important issue in this chapter is how him not studying and focusing on the arts have kind of backfired because of the new culture after Mao's death. Now education is really highly regarded, and the arts are not, and, since he pretty much gave up on his studies, even though he had great potential, he is in a bad situation.
 * **Key Quotes of Chapter 17:** There are many interesting quotes in chapter 17. One of them is on the first page, page 192, in the first paragraph. "My classmates stared at me as though I were a dinosaur...They cold shouldered me. The rest of carried on as if I wasn't there." This is ironic because Da used to be the small guy who hated the big, popular guy. Now the opposite is true, and he's the big fish in the small pond and people hate him for it.
 * Another key quote is on the next page. "The more time I spent with Dia, the less I felt like smoking at all...The only gleam in his eye came from the reflected light of the matches with which he lit his rolls." Da sees how disgusting the habit of smoking is, and what it has done to his friend, and it turns him off from the habit
 * What I consider one of the key quotes about Mao's impact on Da's life occurs on page 195. "I was human garbage in their eyes, victimized by changing times, with no idea of how to pull myself out of the whole I had sunk into..I still stunk with yesterday's staleness." This is Da thinking that everything is his fault, when, really, it is Mao's for not caring about education, and then, after his death, education is all that matters. You can tell this is the child Da thinking about this, not the adult Da, because the adult Da would realize that it is more Mao's fault than his.
 * **Symbols in Chapter 17:** I didn't really see any in this chapter. Maybe that's because it's short, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty bad at this.
 * **Language in Chapter 17:** Some of the metaphors and similes in this chapter are "My classmates stared at me as though I was a dinosaur." (Page 192) This simile, to me, means that they were staring at Da in such a way that it was hard for them to believe how crazy he was, like they were just at a lost to describe him. Another metaphor is on the next page. "Dia ran around kicking the leaves like a crazy animal before attacking me and drumming my chest..." This means that Dia went crazy because of his addiction and he needed them so bad.
 * **Tone of Chapter and Narrator Point of View:** Da's view of his life in this chapter is quite pessimistic, and he does not feel like he has a real hope for a future because of how he focused on the arts instead of his studying. The narrator point of view is the point of view of him as he was experiencing these things, not looking bad on them, as we've seen in some other parts of the book.
 * Picture of What Dia Looked Like in My Mind: Attractive, I know**