Outside Reading - Week 1 Post A

Yeh Yeh's House by Evelina Chao

Vocab:

Adagio (17) - Music. in a leisurely manner; slowly. 

Subterfuge (25) - an artifice  or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, hide something, etc.

Appeals:

1. "This time, at the end of the summer, when I looked for a blue aerogram from him, I was not surprised there was none." (21) This is a logical appeal. Evelina states that her grandfather, Yeh Yeh, did not reply to her letter, as she had suspected he wouldn't. 
2. "I don't know which was more chilling;  the foregone conclusion that we were working so hard to master our skills only to abandon them or that we were perceived as a monolithic cultural type rather than individuals." (20) This is an emotional appeal. Evelina puts the reader in her own shoes to them how hard it is to be different in a world where people judge you depending on your looks. 
3. "I watched her spring away on platform shoes, wishing more then anything that I could be like her." (20) This is also an emotional appeal.  Evelina  yearns to be confident and beautiful like her fellow student. She informs the reader that more then anything she wants to be like everyone else.  

Quote:

"Yeh Yeh is dead." (23). This quote is important because it's when Evelina first learns of her grandfather's passing. He had been asking her to come see him in China, but something had always come up to put-off her plans. Now only a month before her trip to finally see her Yeh Yeh, he passes away in the night. Evelina begins to feel extremely guilty for not going to see him earlier. 

Theme:

A theme that may be emerging in the novel is cultural differences. Evelina talks a lot about how different her family and their traditions are from everyone else's.