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.