Copy of saving fish journals.docx

Dana Kuehn

Mrs. Itibrout

AP Literature and Composition

9th August, 2014

Saving Fish From Drowning Journal 1

The husband is vile and beats his wife. The children have been abused as well, and now they bear scars and are hiding in corners. Poor Miss Burma, the former beauty queen, she would be gorgeous still if it werent for the gaunt limbs, the missing eye, the lips mumbling the same babble. (Tan 146).

Tan uses an incredibly inventive way to communicate the government situation in Burma. When first reading the novel, i was confused as to why Burma was also going by the name Myanmar, but after reading the way that the tour guide describes it to the group, it made much more sense. Burma is still advertised as the same Burma as before, the beauty queen metaphor, but she has been beaten and abused by the husband Myanmar, or the new government rule. Myanmar was a lot stricter and totalitarian than Burmas government, but Myanmar still shows the rest of the world that nothing has changed by being very selective as to what people from other countries can and cannot see when they visit. Myanmar is trying to shield the nasty truth as to what is happening in the country from the world, so they make security incredibly strong and make sure that nobody is seeing anything that should not be seen by outside eyes. Tan does a phenomenal job of illustrating this in the novel.

Kuehn 2Saving Fish From Drowning 2

From this vantage point, the people of No Name Place could see the bridge. But no one approaching their secret home from the other side would know a bridge had ever been there. (Tan 259).

The native people of Burma, in this case the Karen tribe have to seclude themselves and hide to remain safe from the soldiers and government rule. During this section of the book, Rupert finds himself in a very odd and rare situation. Because of a card trick that he did and the Karen saw, they believe that he is their savior and that he really is magical. The Karen want to keep Rupert and try and convince him that being their leader truly is his calling. The Karen people love their beliefs and have such strong spirituality, but seem to almost throw themselves in harms way when preaching their love for their tribe. they are not afraid to tell the soldiers that they are not agreeing with them, even if it leads to the death of their own tribe.

Saving Fish From Drowning 3Did she say Lords Army? He nodded. We the Lords Army, she repeated, then rolled the words around on her tongue. (Tan 416).Tan really exposes, especially through dialog, how shell-shocked the group was going into such a foreign place. They had made mistake after mistake on this trip. From bouts of food poisoning, to peeing on shrines, to ending up in a war of sorts, the group was nowhere near knowledgeable enough for the group that they tried to fling themselves into without their leader. Bibi was so knowing of the cultures and customs that the group would experience along their journey, and going without her, even though they knew was what she would have wanted, was dangerous in many ways- especially when they started to change the agenda. I really adore the way that Tan works the dialogue in this novel to move the story line ahead. Every piece of dialogue served a great purpose. Here, for example was such few words but really embodied the fact that the group just realized that a huge misunderstanding had made its way to the surface.

Saving Fish From Drowning 4In my opinion, the group is responsible for their own fate in many aspects. If they had only followed the original itinerary to a T, they would not have run into hardly any issues. They do not realize how every intricate second of the trip was cautiously planned by somebody who knew exactly what she was getting her friends in to. The group makes the dangerous decision to stray from the plan and try to get the most authentic experience which is what Bibi had planned for them, without them realizing it. Just because Bibi had a detailed agenda did not mean that she was making them go through the average tourist attractions which is what everybody wanted to avoid. When Bennie had to take over the role as the groups leader, he did what he saw as his best to lead the group, but he lacked in preparing himself and doing his research prior to embarking. Every single member of the group seems to humiliate or bring shame to themselves at one point of the journey. For example, when in true American fashion, they try to pay people to try and right their wrongs, without realizing that it was taken as an insult. the woman looked insulted and firmly pushed his hand away. (Tan 166). The saddest part is that he doesnt even understand how much he hurt her feelings, because he thought that she was giving him a gift. Again the group deserves their fate when they completely vandalize a holy temple. What the hell did you do? Marlena spat back. They keep yelling something about urine. Did you pee on some shrine? (Tan 89). Harry had disrespected the temple in such a disgusting form as urinating on it without even realizing it. I believe the groups ill fate was entirely self produced and could have been avoided if they would have merely followed the schedule and were not too adventurous.