Jayden Wang > Recent Status Updates

On page 61, I felt Changez’s confidence growing at Underwood Samson. He is focused, proud, and good at his job, compared to Wainwright, his non-white friend in Underwood Samson, who seems less confident compared to Changez. At the same time, Erica’s sadness becomes clearer, adding tension. Her father’s comments about Pakistan made me feel like a foreshadowing of one of the reasons their relationship broke down later.

The author in the book uses a lot of description about Pakistan and the US, such as the Pakistanis focus more on the inside of things (tea in tea chop), but Americans focus on the look (Princeton's building to make the campus look better). As Changez moved to New York, he felt great at first, but then he left in 8 months. I doubt something happened in his company or something around him happens, forcing him to leave.

At first, the main character really shocked me with his sharp observation and analytical skills. The American also gives me a sense of abnormalness, since he sits in front of the wall, securing his back from any hidden threat. He also wouldn't like to take his jacket off, which makes me think he might be hiding some kind of weapon that makes him confident and safe meeting a random Pakistani inviting him for tea.

Wesley had made a correct choice, or even the most optimal in his situation, with pressure all around him, like his dad. He still held his sense of Integrity and kept Frank in the basement. After knowing that Frank had committed suicide in the basement of Wesley's house, I could see how much the Hayden family cares about their fame and morale; Frank would even die rather than have a bad reputation and go to jail.

During Julian Hayden's visit to Wes's house, I observed the prejudice he harbored against his elder son and the greater affection he showed for Frank compared to Wes. For example, after the talk, Julian sent his employees to try to rob Frank. Also, from the words Julian expressed, Gloria clearly did not know everything that Frank had done. I'm curious about the reaction Glo would have after knowing the whole thing.

Page 105, the author indicates a lot about the paint using Wesley's words. As he says, paint means that living occurs in certain houses; if the paint is new and shiny, it is easy for people to know there's a residence. But I notice that before getting new things on there, we must scrape the old ones, which usually means neglect and decay, but painting new means that there is change happening, which connects to Wes.

I was not surprised to see that Frank had gone into the house before Marie died, and even got 'caught' by Len, and I was starting to understand why we always say that Len is going to be important to the story. During the two chapters, I saw David begin to grow, mentally, from a boy to a man. We saw him changing; it all started with the talk of mom and dad about the action Frank had done, which changed David's world.

On page 77, Marie dies, and it made me think about Frank. As earlier pages, before Frank leaves, he said he would mail some medicine to Marie, and the Medicine could be harmful to Marie with her diseases. Also, the day before Marie's death, she was doing better with the disease. I guess that Frank is very angry that Marie told the sheriff's wife, his brother about all he'd done, and wants to kill and silence.

Wes started to investigate Frank's molesting case. He had made his choice between family and justice. Also, I think about that in the whole story, the Hayden brothers are totally different people, with different characters, behavior, experience, and the 'thing' that they are representing behind. It reminded me that even in our world today, we could still see a person's character and behavior through specific actions.

When we finally discovered that Frank was molesting Indian girls, it reminded me that in our world today, many people seem kind on the surface, but they also commit terrible acts behind the scenes. After the mother told the father about Frank’s actions, it was a tough decision for the dad, who is a sheriff: whether to be loyal to his family and do nothing about Frank or to do his sheriff’s duty. It is a hard choice.

Even when Marie got very sick, she refused to see a doctor, especially Frank Hayden, who is a very famous person in town. It made me confused. Why would Marie refuse to have doctor Hayden, who is free and familiar to them, but even want to find other doctors than Frank? I think that Frank might have done something terrible under his coverage as a great citizen, and Marie knew the truth behind it, so she resisted.

I can feel the ‘change’ that the narrator's mother wanted to express, for example, providing his husband support to be himself, not only the son of Julian Hayden. It evoked a sense of the Hayden family's heritage as the town's sheriff, which somehow seems mandatory. Both parents have different mindsets: the father represents inheritance and power, and the mother represents the ‘true self’.

Possum brings Cal to the old oak tree. It differs from the rest of the school because it is a secret place for Possum and his friends. It is important that kids all like this place because they can hide things and keep their memories. One example the author made I Possum's grandfather's stone box, which brings Cal's mind to the trail of tears, like he is experiencing it.

I am surprised when Morrell seems to recognize Pop and have an excellent relationship, they're fortunate on their way that they all meet friendly, and I think they hadn't seen somebody that held a bad opinion of them (Except the thief beaten by Pop) I am also interested to what would happen next to Cal in Challagi school afterwards. However, my hypothesis of the plot is something not very positive would happen.

In this chapter, I am interested in the plot when Pop shows his calm and bravery when soldiers and a prejudiced captain come and Hobos don't know why they're here.

In Chapter 7, Cap made stew. The stew was transferred from the special lid to a plate and the meal began. The stew disappeared quickly. I wondered if I hadn't eaten enough for a while.When I thought about this, my heart was moved by the difficulty of life at that time. I always want to be grateful for food.

I feel very dangerous about the way that Hobos gets out of the car, just by jumping down before arriving at the platform, with cal's description, people on the platform even have guns in their hands. They aren't allowed to travel by train, so if they want to travel quickly, they can only try to take a risk. The second is that I am shocked by the amount of Hobos (vets) that were in America after the great depression.

I was surprised when Pop said he's native American although I had this thought before, but it's still shocking that Cal is half Indian. The second point is when Pop mentioned a dead Indian is a million US dollars, so they then made Indian schools to educate and teach Indian kids to live in the way white people live.

I am surprised that Pop isn't taking Cal on his way to D.C. because in this book before, it seems that Pop always took Cal on his adventure and journey. However, Pop now decides to let Cal take an Indian school which is much more dangerous than going to D.C. Also, at the start, it mentions the experience of Cal's childhood, and I'm also surprised that his mother is Albanian.

I found a clue that Mr Eular's name Sam Eular is very similar to the watch the Pop had in the vision of war Cal had.

I found it interesting that Pop had told him many things about his experience, with Cal's description of the war, we could see how much detail his father had told him while he's never been there before. The second is that it is pretty surprising when red just comes up, with the description at first, he seems to be the villain, but the truth is he's a kind person and even wants to invite them for dinner.