Chapter+20

Chapter 20 By: Morgan Peters

In this chapter Da's cousin Tan took the college exams. Tan’s scores came back low, but in the end Tan became one of the only students in Yellow Stone to attend college, after the Cultural Revolution. Tan attended Amoy University, with finance major. Da in this chapter is suddenly worrying about college and where his family stands on its own. College became a goal for Da. Da began studying ahead of time for college so he could do well on the exams. Da in this chapter is continuing with his English lessons with Professor Wei and a new teacher, Mr. Ka.

Quotes: • Pg.220, “ Cousin Tan laughed at them all and rejected their offers. He was our hope. We celebrated with him at a big banquet before he left. He encouraged my brother to take the plunge and cautioned me to concentrate on my major, make a reasonable study schedule, and preserve.” • Pg. 226, “Admiration was an understatement. I feared their heroism. After three days in the cold field, I swore I’d rather be a monk, with nothing better to do than dream about nuns in the next monastery than be an unwrapped frozen chicken like the farmers of Yellow fucking stone.” • Pg. 231, “ It wasn’t AU or MT that had made his hands rough, I thought. It was FFW, Fucking Farm Work.”

Themes: • School • Family

By: Sara Reyes In the beginning of chapter 20, Da’s cousin, Tan, is dreading the results of his college entrance exams, but Tan is overjoyed when he finally finds out his scores. Tan suddenly becomes the ‘cool guy’ around Yellow Stone because he is a newly-named college attendant. This inspires Da to try harder than he already is to get into a nice college. Da is trying hard now, but he is so far behind, that he still does very badly on the fall semester exams. His family is very upset by his failures because they feel that he should try extra hard on schoolwork since his siblings cannot even go to school. During this time, Tan comes back for a visit from Amoy University. He has transformed into a well-mannered city kid. What really makes Da want to work harder is the fact that Tan gets meat at every meal. Da has never heard of such an event before! The day after Tan visits, Mo Gong, Sen, and Siang come back to show Da something. While they were visiting Yi, they were gambling and made quit a lot of money. Da thinks that they may have even stolen it.
 * __Summary__**


 * __Narrator POV__**
 * In this chapter the narrator is Da in the authentic voice of himself at the time of the events.

__**Tone (language) and symbolism**__
 * The mood was very relaxed because his writing style was as if he were telling us a story face-to-face in this chapter.
 * Because he is the voice of a teenager, there is not much of any symbolism in this chapter.

A magazine ad, for Amoy University