Unnamed (:

Choose two stories that reveal the thinking of an older generation of Singaporeans: What new insights have you gained from such a revelation.

In Tanjung Rhu, Ah Ma represents the older generation people who is a parent and grandmother herself . She keeps talking about the past whereas it irritates Mr T.W. Li, her son. She has different perspectives of Tanjung Rhu. She thinks it as memories. Whereas her son sees it otherwise eg . when she followed her son to his work place she looked out the window through the binoculars. She still recollects times when her husband is still alive and Mr Li is still a boy playing by the sea. We gain a new insight by knowing about the past and those living around her.

In Corridor, The death of an unnamed and anonymous man in the common corridor outside a flat causes unease in an old lady whose family is involved in an "argument" with a neighbour. She wished that she was there when the unnamed man died, so that man didn't have to die alone without anyone looking out at him. She remembers the community spirit that recalled about kampong life in the past, and that as a child, she had saved her village from a thief who threatened its inhabitants. The conclusion discloses a sense of loss as the past cannot be brought back and relived again.





Choose 5 links and write comments of 50-100words about the content of the blogs.

-Julius
-Danial
-Nuraini
-Abdullah
-Edmund

Q2

Select two stories in which there is conflict between parent and child and show how far there is some resolution of these differences at the end of the story.

-Mid Autumn

A mother's pain and confusion takes place when her daughter decides to leave Singapore to do charity work in Uganda. After obtaining her GP qualifications, the daughter decides that lifestyle with "mobile phones, golf weekends and memberships" hold very little for her, whereas her mother has undergone a life of privation to make these options available for her daughter and it does not seem that her daughter is thankful for it.

-TanjongRhu

A successful executive who, following the death of his mother laments that he has forgotten so much about his childhood life by the sea. His grief at her death is filled with regret that in the last months of her life.

Q4

How are Young people and their ideals presented in two stories in the collection? How far do you identify with these young people?

-Evening Under frangipani

At one level at touching love story that *bemoans the "barriers of pride that isolates each and every human being", the story also involves the racial prejudice that keeps two people apart from each other.

-Hamid and The Hand of Fate

The tale of Hamid whose life is changed forever by an accident which claims his right arm. A simple young man, Hamid decides to be patient and accepts his fate stoically. This decision does not prevent him from sensing that people around him are merely making use of him, hoping to get money from him.

Q3

With reference to suitable stories, discuss how far there is change shown to be either welcomed or feared.

-Lee

It is between a Singaporean father and his westernized daughter, the weird and uneasy relationship between father and daughter clashes between the 'Asian' and 'Western' culture .

Q1

How is motherhood presented in any two stories in the collection?

-The Martyrdom of Helena Rodrigues

From the start of story,we can see that Helena is a mother that likes to control people judging by the way that she controls her husband. Her husband had died.Her next target was her own son.Helena would nurture in him a hypersensitiviy of conscience which bordered upon the pathological;she brought him up to believe that insult his mother's devotion to him was the ultimate blasphemy.Far more securely than her husband,Aloysius had been,George was kept tied to Helena's side. As he gets older, George met his lover and they wanted to get married. On the other hand Helena has fakes illnesses, but Helena's old friend Doctor de Cruz took them seirously and told terrified George thatt his mother's heart was not strong as she did not want George to get married. She wants George to always be by her side as she is lonely and needs company.

-Paper

The couple's desire of getting rich is destroyed when they play the stock market and lose everything. In a twist of fate, the husband's dream house is finally realized in the paper house that is burnt during his funeral for his afterlife. At the funeral, everything was set up, the house was well decorated with delicate framework of wire and thin bamboo strips covered with finely worked paper of myriad colours. There were silver flowers scattered liberally throughout the paper house which gave a carnival-like atmosphere. There was a paper swimming-pool which was put in the house. There were also paper figures inside the house. These things were what the Mother did for Tay Soon.

Pastime

Pastime

Conflict : (internal)
The internal conflict is that the story which Tai Poh claims that is fake, might be true. (pg 214)

Conflict : (external)
The external conflict was the story about Tai Poh, the one about a young man who wants to fight in the jungle. (pg 213)

Climax:
The climax is when Mr Lee decides to tell his own story about a security guard which might have a relation with Tai Poh’s life. It adds more suspense from this onwards.

Resolution
The resolution is a revelation. The conversation ends but it made both of them realize some things that are best kept as stories rather than real things.

Characters
Tai Poh : Creative (pg 212)
: Shy (pg 212)

Mr Lee : Attentive (listens to Tai Poh’s story attentively, pg 216)
: Creative (pg 217)

Man mentioned in Tai Poh’s story : Ambitious (pg 213)
: Reckless

I think the most interesting segment of this story is when Mr Lee decided to tell Tai Poh his own story which he made. This made the reader more hooked to the story.

A History of Tea

A History of Tea

Conflict : (internal)
The internal conflict is when Beverly said that she is going to China and she looks forward to it. It is despite the fact that she knows that most travellers find the food disgusting yet expensive. (pg 112)

Conflict : (external)
The external conflict is the opium wars. The Opium Wars broke out with the English ready to go to war to get free trade against the Chinese government, who opposed the trade of opium fearing their addictive and dangerous values. (pg 119~120)

Climax
The climax began when Beverly mentioned that she was going around Asia. It gave the author of the story something to think about his travels and how he has never gotten a chance to explore Asia. (pg113)

Resolution
The resolution of the story is a revelation. Nothing much happened in the end just that the conversation has ended.

Characters
Beverly : Smart (has plans to study history at Oxford/Cambridg, pg 111)
: Understanding (She knows her mother loves tea pg 111)

Aunt Sherrie : Addicted to Tea (pg 111)
: Religious ( pg 119)

Grandmother : Religious (goes to Church pg 117)
: Traditional (pg 115)

The most interesting segment of this story is when Beverly talks about her Jewish Boyfriend and when her parents disapprove of her relationship with him. This made me curious about what Beverly will do about this .

An Orbituary For Fifth Aunt Come Late

An Obituary for Fifth Aunt Come Late

Conflict : (internal)
The internal conflict is between the aunt’s temptation to learn how to read and her belief in the stigma that a dressmaker’s assistant could not be literate at that time. The evidence is on pg 155 where her grandfather made a law on the family that a dressmaker’s assistant should be allowed to read.

Conflict : (external)
An external conflict is between the aunt and her father. When the aunt was sick during her childhood years, her father had lost patience with her and did not feel that it was right to spend the family funds trying to cure her when he should be spending it on his sons.

Climax
The climax happened when the Japanese forces invaded Singapore. It added more adrenaline to the story and changed the lives of the main characters. (pg156)

Resolution
The resolution in this story is complete as the aunt has lived a full and fulfilling life despite ups and downs. At the end, she died peacefully, knowing that the life she lived is not as fortunate compared to the lives of people living today.

Characters
Aunt : Obedient (she does her chores and obeys pg 152)
: Hardworking (pg 149)

Dressmaker : Kind-hearted (pg 158)
: Polite (pg 157)

Aunt’s Parents : Old Fashioned (prefers having a son than a daughter pg151)
: Caring (pg 153)

The most interesting segment in this story is when aunt joined the other family. It is the start of a new life for the aunt and unexpected things can happen from this point until the end. It made me wonder whether aunt will finally be treated equally or whether she would be treated like before.

Release

Release

Conflict : (internal)
The internal conflict in the story is between Eileen’s desire to complain to the neighbours and the habit of ignoring the situation. The evidence of her neglect is on pg 144 when she “tried as hard as possible not to notice anything about her neighbours”. The disturbances has made her take actions like when she decided to call up the SPCA to complain about the situation.

Climax
The climax of the story is when Eileen decides to call for help from the SPCA and the police. This is where things can became unpredictable as it gets the reader tense and suspense.

Resolution
The resolution of this story is open ended. The story ends when the man murders the puppies and Eileen panics. It allows the reader to guess what kind of resolution it will be.

Characters
Eileen: Gets angry easily because of small little things(pg 141)
: Good at taking care of her children (143-144)
Philip : Easy-going (he gives in alot pg 141~142)
: Gullible (easily convinced by small things pg 142~143)

Neighbours : Selfish (pg141)
: Disrespectful (pg 140)

I think the most interesting segment of the story is when the kind and gentle looking guy killed the puppies; it was rather unexpected as the man seemed very nice and he offered help to Eileen. He was also gentle with the baby. When the man murdered the puppies however, it made me think that there was something bad about him.

Lee

Lee

Conflicts : (internal)
There is an internal conflict within father. Father does not want Lee to have the dual loyalties and also does not want his daughter to live unhappily so he allows Lee to go to the American School. (pg 101)

Conflicts : (external)
It is between Lee and her father. The both of them have contradicting cultural views. Lee is more encouraging towards western culture whereas her father prefers traditional Chinese culture. (pg 102~103)

Climax
The climax of the story is when Lee went to the family reunion at her grandmothers flat. She could meet up with her family members and learn more about her traditional culture. Her father had a chance to get feedback from his relatives about what he should do with his daughter’s education (pg 100)
Resolution
The type of resolution for this story would be a revelation. At the end, both Lee and her father realize that both of them have something in common which was that they could accept each other’s cultural differences and their cultural views. (pg 106~107)

Characters
Lee : Vulgar (pg 90)
: Loves criticizing others (pg 95)

Father : Hot tempered (pg 97)
: Cultural (pg 103)

Lee’s grandma : Cultural (pg99)
: Concerned (pg 100)

The most interesting segment of the story is when Lee went to her grandmother’s house for the family reunion and learns about the culture and tradition of her family. It shows how Lee is different from Singaporeans with her westernized culture.

Evening Under The Frangipani

Name : Muhammad Faris Bin Ismail

Class : 4/4

Literature Holiday Homework.

Evening Under The Frangipani

Conflicts : (internal)

The internal conflict is when Prakash is unsure of himself and he feels not so confident when he went for his job interview. He feels quite bad and stressed as he kept thinking if he had done well for his interview.

Conflicts : (external)

It is where Prakash went to Elaine’s house and met her mother. Elaine’s mother’s behaviour is crude and disrespectful towards Prakash. Prakash also became disrespectful towards Elaine’s mother .

Climax

The climax of the story is when Prakash and Elaine broke up. Because of that, the story does not emphasise anymore on the love between the both of them but on being separated frome each other.

Resolution

The story has an open ending resolution. Prakash and Elaine went their separate ways and did not get back to each other.

Characters

Prakash : He is physically fit (pg 56~57)

: Laughs easy (pg 62)

Elaine : Sensitive (disliked prakash’s joke, pg 62)

: Persevering (wants to get promoted, pg 68)

Elaine’s mother : Sarcastic (when they had dinner with prakash, pg 59)

: Successful (a lawyer, pg 54)

In my opinion, the most interesting segment in the story is when Prakash and Elaine met at the park. Elaine wanted to meet there as she wanted to tell Prakash that her parents are going to Malaysia and the whole house would belong to them. While they were talking, Elaine felt that it was sweet when Prakash took out a pamelo and opened it.