Freshman English Reading Journal
Kavel Rao
Yuen
Freshman English
3/12/17
Week 1 Reading Journal
1. (A) Straight from the outset, after announcing Lydia's death, Ng writes, "No one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast" (Ng 1). (B) Lydia is dead, and the only clue is her banal absence from the breakfast table. Ng's first description of Lydia, whose death the plot revolves around, portrays her as just a regular high schooler, just going through the motions of life.
2. (A) When Lydia's mother first starts searching for her, her mind glances off the possibility of a kidnapping or worse, and she thinks to herself that those kinds of things don't happen in Middlewood, which is "just a tiny college town of three thousand, where driving an hour gets
you only to Toledo…" (Ng 7). (B) Ng creates the scene of the area in which the story takes place as a small town in the middle of nowhere. This setting gives the story a more mysterious feeling, as the town is somewhat isolated from other communities.
3. (A) When Marylin asks her school advisor if she could take physics, she explains that "… she was hoping to become a doctor. "Not a nurse?" he'd said, with a chuckle…" (Ng 25). (B) Marylin dreams to become a doctor one day, but because, of her gender, her advisor thinks she should be a nurse. During the time period of the story, women's role was focused on getting married and keeping the house, not in getting a job, and this is reflected in the advisor's reaction to Marylin's goal.
4. (A) When Marylin first sees James at the front of the lecture hall, she is astonished, thinking, "An Oriental, she thought. She had never seen one in person before" (Ng 31). (B) Marylin's reaction to seeing James is curiosity like that of a child. This shows the attitude towards Chinese in this era; they are looked at as a rare specimen to be studied.
5. (A) Lydia's death, as any uncommon occurrence in a small town like Middlewood, is heavily publicized; one newspaper title reads, "Oriental Girl found Drowned in Pond" (Ng 60). (B) After Lydia's death, the Middlewood Monitor writes about her drowning in the pond. The paper's focus on her "Oriental" ethnicity portrays the mood of the era towards Chinese as discriminatory curiosity.
6. (A) Asked by the police if he wanted a copy of Lydia's autopsy, James gave them his office's address instead of his home one, and when it arrived, "slipped it into the bottom drawer of his desk and locked it" (Ng 68). (B) Rather than having the autopsy delivered to his home, James has it sent to his office address and locks it in his desk. James' solitary approach toward Lydia's autopsy reveals that he prefers to cope and grieve in private and avoid bothering others with his troubles.
Yuen
Freshman English
3/12/17
Week 1 Reading Journal
1. (A) Straight from the outset, after announcing Lydia's death, Ng writes, "No one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast" (Ng 1). (B) Lydia is dead, and the only clue is her banal absence from the breakfast table. Ng's first description of Lydia, whose death the plot revolves around, portrays her as just a regular high schooler, just going through the motions of life.
2. (A) When Lydia's mother first starts searching for her, her mind glances off the possibility of a kidnapping or worse, and she thinks to herself that those kinds of things don't happen in Middlewood, which is "just a tiny college town of three thousand, where driving an hour gets
you only to Toledo…" (Ng 7). (B) Ng creates the scene of the area in which the story takes place as a small town in the middle of nowhere. This setting gives the story a more mysterious feeling, as the town is somewhat isolated from other communities.
3. (A) When Marylin asks her school advisor if she could take physics, she explains that "… she was hoping to become a doctor. "Not a nurse?" he'd said, with a chuckle…" (Ng 25). (B) Marylin dreams to become a doctor one day, but because, of her gender, her advisor thinks she should be a nurse. During the time period of the story, women's role was focused on getting married and keeping the house, not in getting a job, and this is reflected in the advisor's reaction to Marylin's goal.
4. (A) When Marylin first sees James at the front of the lecture hall, she is astonished, thinking, "An Oriental, she thought. She had never seen one in person before" (Ng 31). (B) Marylin's reaction to seeing James is curiosity like that of a child. This shows the attitude towards Chinese in this era; they are looked at as a rare specimen to be studied.
5. (A) Lydia's death, as any uncommon occurrence in a small town like Middlewood, is heavily publicized; one newspaper title reads, "Oriental Girl found Drowned in Pond" (Ng 60). (B) After Lydia's death, the Middlewood Monitor writes about her drowning in the pond. The paper's focus on her "Oriental" ethnicity portrays the mood of the era towards Chinese as discriminatory curiosity.
6. (A) Asked by the police if he wanted a copy of Lydia's autopsy, James gave them his office's address instead of his home one, and when it arrived, "slipped it into the bottom drawer of his desk and locked it" (Ng 68). (B) Rather than having the autopsy delivered to his home, James has it sent to his office address and locks it in his desk. James' solitary approach toward Lydia's autopsy reveals that he prefers to cope and grieve in private and avoid bothering others with his troubles.