Close Reading

For American Born Chinese:

I noticed that when Wei-Chen thinks about what a girl would want or what the perfect person is he thinks of a person who resembels Danny. He wants to have blonde hair, blue or green eyes, and light skin. Wei-Chen seems to think that if he was a white, blonde boy all of his problems would seem to disappear. This is shown in the panels on page (I have to still look it up), where Wei-Chen is sitting on a bench imagining blonde hair. I think that it is sad that he can't just love himself for who he is and try to find the good parts about being him. A lot of people try to change their apperance or just who they are in general to try to fit in.

For My Papa's Waltz:

"Then waltzed me off to bed"
I think that the line above is the most importnat in the poem. It seems to show how even though the dad is drunk he still cares about his child. The father seems to be spending some quality time with his son by teaching him how to dance. From teh line "Sill clinging to your shirt" made me think that the father and son dont get to spend a lot of time together becuase the son doesnt want to let go. The dad seems to work hard long days because his hand is "caked with dirt" which seems to mean that he has an outside jon where mabye he works in the fields or does some sort of manual labor.

Thesis: The poem My Papa's Waltz represents a good night story between a father and child.
Support:
1. "Palm cracked hard by dirt"- the father works doing manual labor during the day
2. "Then waltzed me off to bed"- tucking the child in for the night
3. "Off to bed"- After Dinner