Essay 4

In the Japanese culture your children are suppose to be filial. Their first born son is to quit school and work to pay their parents debt. This is a rule passed down form generation to generation. Most of the boys obey this rule without question, but Toshio, the son of Mr. Mrs. Oyama, doesn’t think that it is fair. Toshio and his parents get in to many arguments about him not being a filial son. Kiyoshi is know as the Filial son in the family, even though he is not the first born. Why is Kiyoshi and Toshio responsible for paying off their parents debt? Well, that is just like asking why in the United States do most women have their fathers walk them down the isle on their wedding day. This is just a tradition passed down by generation. It’s just the right thing to do in the eyes of the people involved. Toshio and Kiyoshi are from the Japanese culture, were as a young man in the family, you work hard and pay off the family debt before going off and starting a life of your own. Pretty much your parents own your body until the debt is paid.
As a young girl growing up I dreamed of the day my father would walk me down the isle. Why did I just assume it would be my father walking me down the isle? This is just something you grown up learning. Just like as if you were a first born son in a Japanese family. You grow up knowing that you will be quitting school to work in the cane fields for little pay, to just hand your pay over to your parents until their debt is paid off. These young men are not allowed to attend College or most the time even Highschool, they are also not allowed to started a family until the family debt is paid off or they are considered dishonorable or not “filial” in the Japanese language. A lot of the young men do this for their families with out a word said. They know that it is their duty. Toshio on the other hand feels its not fair. He doesn’t understand why he is paying off a debt that has nothing to do with him.
I have mixed feelings about weather or not Toshio and Kiyoshi should have to pay off their parents debt. I understand where Toshio is coming from when he says he doesn’t think it should be their responsibility. Why do these young men have to give up their life? They are not allowed to go to college but any of their younger siblings are allowed to off of their pay. These parents should not be having more children then they can afford. As a parent I could not imagine sending my son off to work at 15 years old to pay off my debt. I personally feel that the parents should take care of the children, not the other way around.
Kiyoshi has a little different way of handling this situation. He is not happy working in the cane fields but he never tells his parents this. He understands that his parents are in debt and he needs to do what he can to help them. He never talks back to his parents. He is not even the first son but he works hard and hands over his pay. In the end he ends up giving his winnings form the craps games he plays to his parents to pay off their debt. Kiyoshi was considered the good son, the filial son. This is because he never talked back or yelled at his family. I also understand why Kiyoshi does as his parents ask. Even though I do not agree with the fact that these boys have to put their life on hold and practically be slaves to their parents. I do understand that you need to respect your parents and do what is right. There were many things my father did with his children, because that is what his father did to him growing up. A lot of these things I didn’t understand or even agree with but I would never tell my father that. It was not my place as his child to tell him what I thought was right or wrong. I just told myself that I would not raise my children the same way. This is something that Toshio could do. If he doesn’t believe that it is right then he needs to raise his son differently. Not having him pay off his debt and allowing him to go thru school. This will teach his grand children the same thing and it would stop the tradition of the children paying off their parents debt. In the end, I think it is wrong to make your children slave over your debt. I do believe in tradition and respect like having your father walk you down the isle if you’re a young lady or that you are to always respect our elders no matter how old you are, and to always address someone by Mr. or Mrs. Parents are suppose to support their children. You should not be having children to just pay off the debt that you got yourself into. I do think that Toshio and Kiyoshi are both in the right. Toshio sticks up for himself and what he believes is right, and Kiyoshi doesn’t like it but respects his parents and always does as he is told.

All I ask for is my body dialogue part III

When I first started this book I didn't care much for it. I thought it was very boring. Once I started to get to the end of this book I couldn't put it down. I have a lot of different feeling about this story but the end of the story was really good. I understand both Kiyoshi and Tosh's way of thinking. Both these boys were very strong willed but in different ways.
The end of the story was wonderful. I was very glad that Kiyoshi won the $6,000 to send back to his family, even though it was not his duty. Tosh was suppose to help his family pay of this debt. I think that Kiyoshi has a great heart. He is a good son and brother. He did not only pay off this debt for his parents but he also did it for his brother and for himself. Kiyoshi could have just taken this money and never told the family about it but he didn't. I though it was really sweet that he actually felt bad about winning the money. He felt like he stole it form the other men. But in the end family is the most important thing to the Japanese.

All I ask for is my body II dialogue

Why does Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mother?

Kiyoshi mother is very superstitious. She believes many things that some people like Kiyoshis' father thinks are just ridiculous. One of her believes is that close relatives can die for other people even if they never did anything wrong. These people that die for them are called substitutes. She also believes that death comes in fours. She had already had three family members die. Kiyoshi uncle, his grandmother and her father, it will keep going until the forth person dies.

The reason Kiyoshi believes that Obaban is his mothers substitute is for many reasons. I think first off is that there has to be one more person in the family that has to pass away. Kiyoshi has learned from his mother that Obaban is considered the black sheep. She had broke a very secret rule. You are not suppose to do anything in the first forty-nine days after someones dies. She got elope before these days were up. Lastly, Kiyoshis' mother was pretty much on her death bed and then Obaban died suddenly. His mother was well enough after this to leave the hospital and make it to Obaban service. Kiyoshi felt bad that he was so happy that Obaban has passed away, but he believes that his mother is now going to be alright.

All I ask for is my body dialogue

Makot is a young Japanese boy who lives in a Filipino camp. He seems to be a little confused about himself and life in general. He only hangs out with younger boys. I do feel sorry for him because it seems to me that he feels he has to buy friendship. The only way he is able to do this is with the younger boys because the one's his age don't want to be his friend. All the boys his age make fun of him and call him names like a "wahine" which means girl or sissy in Hawaiian. When he doesn't get his way he will whine and tell the young boys that he is not going to buy them goodies anymore.
I was a little confused with he end of the story. I don't know why Kiyo's parents say that Makot parents are bad people. I think Makot doesn't care for or respect his parents at all. I think they show him love through money. I think he copes with his parents by never being at home. He is always out with they boys. He always wants to go to the movies or something. I think he is very embarrassed with his parents. That is why he never lets anyone over when they are home.

Chapter 43

Chapter 43 is about spelling. The way you learn to spell is through experience. You get experience when you read and write. The best way to become a good speller is if you don’t know how to spell a work you need to look it up in a dictionary. In order to do this you need to be familiar with your dictionaries. Sometimes there is more then one word. The word that appears first is usually the preferred spelling of that word. Also in the main entry it will show you how to separate a word by syllables. Right after that you will find the pronunciation. The other things you will find in the dictionary are word ending, grammatical label, word origin, synonyms, antonyms and usage.
When spelling you also need to discriminate between words that sound the same but have different meanings. Such as affect and effect. You also need to become familiar with the major spelling rules. For example I before E except after C, or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor. You also need to learn when to keep the E and when to drop it. When adding S or ED to words ending in Y, you need to know when to keep the Y or change it to IE. Lastly you need to know when to add a S or and ES.
The reason I chose chapter 43 on spelling is because spelling is my weakest point. I have never been a good speller, and know I know why. I learned so many rules that I never knew. I thought learning about plurals the most interesting. I never knew the rule about adding a S or when it is proper to add and ES. It was also very interesting to learn what everything means when you look a word up in a dictionary. After reading the definition I never knew what everything else meant.

Essay #3

What is the importance of forgiveness in “Smoke Signals”? How does Victor learn to forgive his father? There are many reasons why forgiveness is so important. In Victors case, in the movie “Smoke Signals” he is having a hard time forgiving his father. Victor has a wonderful friend named Thomas, who helps him through most of his difficult times. I am a strong believer that you can’t forget until you forgive. Thomas helps Victor forgive his father for some of the bad things he did, which essentially helps him to forget some of the bad and remember the good times he had with his father.
Victor had a really rough childhood. Both Victors parents were alcoholics. Victors father was physically abusive toward him and his mother. Victor never spent much time with his father. When he was just a young boy his father left the reservation. Victor stayed and lived with his mother. All of this combined made Victor very agree with his father. There was a lot that Victor needed to forgive his father for.
Unfortunately, Victor was not able to forgive his father until after he passed away. Victor and Thomas went on a road trip to get Victors fathers ashes. This is what brought Thomas and Victor closer together. Though during the road trip there were a lot of stories that Thomas told that Victor didn’t like very much. I think the reason this upset Victor so much was because he couldn’t think of that many memories with his own father. I think that Thomas had so many memories for two reasons. The first is, Victors dad did spend some quality time with Thomas because he felt guilty that he didn’t have a father. Second, Thomas was not upset with Victors dad so he was able to remember the good times they had together. For some reason it is so much easier to remember the bad memories then the good ones.
It wasn’t until the end of their road trip and with Thomas’s help that Victor was able to start forgiving his father. Once Victor forgave his father he seemed like a much happier person. He became a better friend and seemed to be able to remember some of the better times him and his father shared.
I can relate to Victor in a way. My father was also an alcoholic and abusive at times. Growing up, mainly my teenage years I was not able to think of any good memories with my father. All I could think of was the hell we had to deal with. It wasn’t until later in my life when I was able to forgive my father. I realized that my dad wasn’t going to live forever and I wanted him to know that I forgave him. My father and I have a great relationship now. Because I was able to forgive my father we are able to make great memories. This is why I say you need to forgive in order to forget.
I think the main way that Victor was able to forgive his father was with his passing away. This happens to be a very sad situation. I feel he would not have been able to forgive his father if he didn’t make the road trip with Thomas to go pick up his ashes. I think Victor learning that his father was the cause of the house fire that killed Thomas parents helped him to forgive him. This could have been why his dad was angry and drank all the time, he had to much guilt to deal with. Lastly, I think that his dads girlfriend telling him that he talked about him a lot and that he always wanted to go back to the reservation to see him also helped. She help him remember good times he had with his father like the times they use to play basketball together. I think these all played a part in Victors forgiveness toward his father.
In conclusion, I feel that forgiveness is a very important piece of life. If we didn’t forgive people for the things they did then we would live in a very hateful and cruel world. You need to forgive in order to forget. This is what Victor learned at the end of his journey. He was finally able to forgive his father.

This is what it means to say Phoenix Arizona, Dialogue

Are you more impressed with the film or the story? Why?
I have to say I am way more impressed with the movie. After reading the story there wasn’t anything in common except that Victor’s father died, and him and Thomas went to pick up his truck and ashes. In the story there wasn’t any connection between Victor and Thomas like there was in the movie. I felt like the movie was more about building a friendship between the two. In the book it seemed like Victor really didn’t like Thomas at all. I felt like in the movie that Victor was rude to Thomas but deep down really cared about him.
The other reason I am more impressed with the movie over the story is because of the apology that Victor gave to Thomas. The apology in the story was just for beating him up when they where younger. In the movie it was more for everything, the way he treated him through out their life. It was also a lot more sincere.
Lastly, the reason I was more impressed with the movie was because there was more originality to it. What I mean by this is the way they got to Arizona. I enjoyed the drive in reverse to the bus station. I also like the connection that Thomas and Victor had when Thomas tried to act more like Victor. I just feel like overall the movie was much better.