A Thematic Analysis of Homeward Bound
“Homeward Bound” P206
Section I: Analysis of theme
Paragraph 2 line 3
Feet Binding
Paragraph 6 line 5
Language isolation
Section II: Analysis of rhetorical technique
1. Simile
a) (Para1 L1) My grandmother has bound feet. Cruelly tethered since her birth, they are like bonsai trees.
b) (Para 6 L4) My grandmother sat on my hotel bed, shrunken and wise, looking as if she belonged in a museum case.
2. Allusion
a) (Para3 L3) My father was a young man when he left his family’s village in northern China, disappearing into the chaos of the Japanese invasion and the Communist revolution that followed.
b) (Para 4 L4) So 30 years after he left home, and in the wake of President Nixon’s visit, my father gathered us up and we rushed to China to find her.
Section III: Vocabulary
1. Callouses n. (Paragraph 2 line 1)
Definition: A thick and hard part of skin that is generated by the skin inflation.
The marks and callouses they bear come from running and jumping, neither of which my grandmother has ever done.
2. Gaze v. (Paragraph 6 last 2 line)
Definition: Look intently， attentively
In our mutual isolation of language and experience, we could only gaze in wonder, mystified that we had come to be sitting together.
3. Gnarled adj. v. (Paragraph 7 last 3 line)
Definition: Rough, twisted and knobby
And when it came, she broke down, her face bowed into her gnarled hands.
Section IV: Discussion Questions
1. What does the “bound” in the title refer to? What does it mean in the article?
2. What’s your feeling, after the reading and analyzing of the article “Homeward Bound”?
3. How does the article reflect the previous social system in the past?
Section V: Syntax
She is a relic even in China, where foot binding was first banned more than 80 years ago when the country could no longer afford a population that had to be carried.
(Para 1 L3)
Section I: Analysis of theme
Paragraph 2 line 3
Feet Binding
Paragraph 6 line 5
Language isolation
Section II: Analysis of rhetorical technique
1. Simile
a) (Para1 L1) My grandmother has bound feet. Cruelly tethered since her birth, they are like bonsai trees.
b) (Para 6 L4) My grandmother sat on my hotel bed, shrunken and wise, looking as if she belonged in a museum case.
2. Allusion
a) (Para3 L3) My father was a young man when he left his family’s village in northern China, disappearing into the chaos of the Japanese invasion and the Communist revolution that followed.
b) (Para 4 L4) So 30 years after he left home, and in the wake of President Nixon’s visit, my father gathered us up and we rushed to China to find her.
Section III: Vocabulary
1. Callouses n. (Paragraph 2 line 1)
Definition: A thick and hard part of skin that is generated by the skin inflation.
The marks and callouses they bear come from running and jumping, neither of which my grandmother has ever done.
2. Gaze v. (Paragraph 6 last 2 line)
Definition: Look intently， attentively
In our mutual isolation of language and experience, we could only gaze in wonder, mystified that we had come to be sitting together.
3. Gnarled adj. v. (Paragraph 7 last 3 line)
Definition: Rough, twisted and knobby
And when it came, she broke down, her face bowed into her gnarled hands.
Section IV: Discussion Questions
1. What does the “bound” in the title refer to? What does it mean in the article?
2. What’s your feeling, after the reading and analyzing of the article “Homeward Bound”?
3. How does the article reflect the previous social system in the past?
Section V: Syntax
She is a relic even in China, where foot binding was first banned more than 80 years ago when the country could no longer afford a population that had to be carried.
(Para 1 L3)