OneBookOneRiverHill discussion

Yang uses humor to make light of experiences that are not so humorous for the immigrants that experience them. Often when reading we laugh at painful experiences of the characters. Have you or anyone you've known had experiences that were funny to others, but very painful to you? If possible, explain. Do you think Yang used the technique of humor appropriately?

Yang was right to use the humor he used, it made it enjoyable and relatable. Once I lost my phone in school and I started to freak out. All my friends thought it was hilarious but to me it seemed like the end of the world. Later I was able to find it, a friend hid it in another friends lunch box. After finding out my phone was alright I was able to laugh about it with my friends.
-Alisha p.4.A

Once, similarly to Alisha, I thought I lost my phone, and it was funny to the people at my table, but after, they told me they hid it, after I freaked out and panicked (it was gone for the whole day). The humor that Gene Yang uses is fine because it is funny, and it's humor that I can relate to, because I have felt such emotions and experiences before in my life.

I think that the authors use of humor is used to lighten the situations described in the book and it was appropriately used. An example of a situation that was funny to me but not to my friend at the time was when her shoe flew off during a roller coaster and she had to walk around the park for the rest of the day with one shoe. The people we were with were making fun of her. When the situation was over she laughed but when she was not laughing when she was half shoeless walking around a dirty amusement park.