dialogue part 3

What is the meaning of the title?

Throughout the ending of the book Tosh says several times “All I asking for is my Body.” I believe what he is saying is that he wants to live his life the way he wants to and have his own freedom, but instead he is throwing away most of his life because of his parents. Tosh and Kiyoshi’s parents owe a $6000 dollar debt, and because Tosh is the oldest son he is supposed to be the filial son. His parents expect Tosh to work hard and raise money to pay off their debt. Tosh doesn’t believe that he should be the one and he tells his parents that. Tosh finally tells them that he doesn’t want to pay off the debt because really it’s not his responsibility, that’s when they turn it over to Kiyoshi because they believe that he is a better son. At the end of the book Kiyoshi wins money from gambling, which he sends to Tosh to give to his parent so they are able to pay off all the debt. I feel that Kiyoshi is more respectful towards the way his culture works rather than Tosh is, and feels accomplished by paying off the debt.

Ch 19 Fragments

Sentence fragments are a word group that pretends to be a sentence and are usually most recognized when they appear out of context. For a sentence to be a sentence, it must consist of at least one full independent clause. A fragment can be fixed in two different ways: pulling the fragment into a nearby sentence or turning the fragment into a sentence. A subordinate consists of both a subject and a verb, and is know to be patterned like a sentence. Subordinate clauses can't stand alone and are used as adjectives, adverbs, and nouns. By deleting the opening word or words that make it a subordinate, you are capable of changing the clause to a sentence. Phrases also are used as adjectives, adverbs, and nouns, and can't stand alone. Parts of compound predicates, lists, and examples introduced by such as, for example, or similar expressions are other word groups that are commonly fragmented. There are five ways when a fragment may be used, they are for emphasis, to answer a question, as a transition, exclamations, and in advertising.

Chapter 19 taught me a good amount about how to repair a fragment. When I am typing up something on the computer, I usually end up with a fragment and never really understand what it is exactly or how to fix it. This chapter has taught me to understand that and will hopefully come into effect. I recommend reading over this chapter if you find yourself tangled up in fragment sentences a lot.

All I asking for is my body, part 2 dialogue

Kiyoshi's mother has always been very superstitious. She had superstitions about so many different things, like only scooping out the rice twice from the big bowl and putting it into the individual bowl, she said the double scooping protected the family from seeing a second mother, which meant your first mother wouldn't die or leave. Then there was the word 'shi', to mother it was known as the bad luck word. Shi could either mean “four or “death it all depended on the character. Mother had been very worried when father turned 42 in 1933, because 42 was pronounced 'shi-ni' and 'shi-ni-iku', which means to go to die,have the same sound. Father didn't believe in any of the Chinese and Buddhist superstitions. Mother believed that if someone you were close to had done a bad sin, that you could end up being the substitute of the person that did the bad sin. When Mother ended up in the hospital she believed she was the substitute for someone and that she was going to die. Kiyoshi had taken a taxi to Obaban's home to let her know mother was sick and in the hospital. Shortly after Obaban had gone back home she died of a stroke. Obaban had came to believe that Obaban was the substitute for his mother.

All I Asking For Is My Body

Who is Makot?  Do you feel sorry for him?  What are your thoughts about him and the way he copes with his parents? 


Makot lives with his parents in Pepelau, Hawaii. He is a teenager who hangs out with kids much younger then him, like Kiyoshi, because no one his own age is willing of being his friend. Makot comes from a wealthy family and enjoys spending money on his gang, I think this may just be a reason for him to keep them from not hanging out with him. There is something strange about Makot. Makot is always inviting his gang over for dinner and stuff. Makots parents act very strange and Kiyoshi's parents tell him that Makots parents are bad people. I do feel sorry for Makot because the fact that no one his own age wants to be friends with him. Makot and his parents don't seem to be around eachother a lot and I feel the Makots parents don't care enough for Makot to know what he is always doing. I don't think Makots behavior towards his parents should be acceptable, but the way his parents act affects the way Makot will. Kiyoshi had thanked Makots mother and she just laughed, then Makot had put on a fake cry for the reverend, this is all just childish behavior.

What's the importance of forgiveness in "Smoke Signals"? How does Victor learn to forgive his father?

Forgiveness is something your release out from the all the pain and anger you may have piled up. If you don't learn to forgive you'll constantly be stuck in the past, therefore it is better to forgive so you can live in the future and move on. Even though you are forgiving it doesn't mean that you are forgetting, it just means your letting go of the pain and anger. In "Smoke Signals" Victor was angry and held a grudge against his father, because he had left him and his mom when he was very young. For Victor not forgiving his father it makes things more complicated for him to move on with his life. Because Victor's father was an abusive alcoholic towards him and his mother that made it harder for him to forgive and it was not until Victor's father passed away that he realized he should of forgiven his father and spent times with him. Victor had to go pick up his fathers ashes, and Thomas offered go with him. I believe Thomas helped Victor realize that he should have forgiven his father.

ch. 17

Ch 17. is on choosing an appropriate language. Your choice of language can be effective to the type of genre you are writing on. In this chapter they warn you to stay away from “jargon,” which is a specialized language used among members of a trade, profession, or group. Sentences that contain jargon tend to be longer and more puffed-up language. For example, a sentence that contains jargon in it is like this, “Mayor Summers will commence his term of office by ameliorating living conditions in economically deprived zone.” But the simpler way to write this sentence would be to say, “Mayor Summers will begin his term of office by improving living conditions in poor neighborhoods. You should try to also avoid obsolete and invented words. The dictionary lists obsolete words, but they shouldn't be used in your writing. Neologisms also know as invented words are known to be too recently created to be part of standard English. Stay away from slang, regional expressions and nonstandard English. Slang is an informal and sometimes private vocabulary that is usually used by teenagers, hip hop artists, or football fans. The word jazz started of as a slang, but is now there to describe a style of music. Regional expressions are common to a group in a geographical area. For example, “Let's talk with the bark off,” rather than let's speak frankly. People with a common regional or social heritage are the one's who speak nonstandard English. Nonstandard English is inappropriate for most formal and informal writing, but may be appropriate when used to talk to a small group of people.

This chapter was very helpful to me. At times I'll be doing a writing assignment and I'll catch myself writing down slang words or even when I'm talking with someone in person. I learned some very helpful tips from this reading that will be helpful to me in my future writing assignments.

Response To Mr. Harvey

Mr. Harvey gets brought up in the beginning of the Obituary story. He is Lovey's English teacher, who teaches his students like scum at times. Mr. Harvey is trying to teach his student's how to speak perfect English, but all of the student's struggle when it comes to this. Mr. Harvey asks each student to stand up and say what they want to be when they are older all in Standard English. When it comes to Lovey's turn she hesitates, then says "My name Lovey. When I grow up pretty soon, I going be what I like be and nobody better say nothing about it or I kill um." This made Mr. Harvey angry. He says, " OH REALLY, not the way you talk. You see, that was terrible. All of you were terrible and we will have to practice and practice our Standard English until we are perfect little Americans..." Mr. Harvey has a good heart but is too harsh to his students. He is trying to help his students out so they live a better future, but I believe that him being disrespectful towards his students might make it so they don't care for what he has to say. I feel that Mr. Harvey expects his students to be perfect at speaking Standard English, but it takes time, especially when someone has grown up in a different place where they learned to speak the language they are from. Mr. Harvey should help his students out without being rude to them and make them feel comfortable when speaking Standard English.