Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
Written in the context of the life of a refugee
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrative
Tone and Mood
Heart-breaking and exhilarating
Protagonist and Antagonist
The central character in the novel is the narrator.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that the narrator's parents are in constant disagreements, often fighting.
Climax
The climax comes when the narrator gets an opportunity to learn about his family history through the three different family pictures that were taken in Vietnam.
Foreshadowing
The bad behavior of the narrator's brother has foreshadowed his father's gangster behaviour.
Understatement
The parental conflict on children is understated. For instance, the narrator's brother is ungovernable, and his whereabouts are unknown.
Allusions
The story alludes to the life of immigrants and the challenges they go through in a new destination.
Imagery
The images of racism, identity crisis and ethnicity depict sight imagery to aid readers to see the oppression that immigrants go through.
Paradox
The main paradox is that Ba is a Buddhist thug, which contradicts the principles of Buddhism, and many people cannot believe that he is a gangster.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The pool is used as a metonymy for bad luck in the text.
Personification
N/A
