Who is the Narrator? Where does he live? What do his parents do for a living?
The narrator is a fourth grade boy name Kiyoshi who lives in Pepelau, Hawaii. The whole town would spend their whole day at the beach and if they had money they would watch movies at night. No one is Pepelau owned shoes because during the day they would go bare foot and at night they would wear a pair of Japanese zori.
Kiyo lived with is parents, older brother Tosh who is a seventh grader and kid sister. Kiyo’s father was a fisherman and his mother hand sewed kimonos. His parents taught him to be very respectful to others.
Kiyo had two friends named Mit and Skats who were both the same age. In the summer Kiyo and his two friend met Makot who was an older boy about the same age as Kiyo brother Tosh. He would eat at Makot’s house because he was tired of eating fish and rice. He would do things Makot told him to because Makot would take him to the movies, or buy him ice cream, or candy. However, Kiyo’s parents do not approve of him playing with Makot. They told Kiyo that Makot’s home is bad and so are his parents.
Narrator presents his family as respectful family in this part of the book. Even though they are poor they lived their life with hard working and self-respect. Sometime he used to be fade up of the food provide by his parents but after all he had a gratitude and great respect towards his parents. His respect toward his parents was presented when he thought that he would not treat his mother like the way Makot treated his mother.
ReplyDeleteHi Penny -
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned no one in the town of Pepelau would wear shoes during the day. When I was a kid my friends and I would run around barefoot all the time during the summer. In fact my parents had to force me to wear shoes.
I feel bad for Makot because he believes he has to pay for friendships. It is quite possible he learned that from his parents.
Thank you,
Sarah Baker
My favorite line so far in the book is the part about zori. Something I only hear at home or when with family who are all Japanese, so to actully read it in the book automatic made it a great book. Zori are something I would wear all the time if I could. But back to the book Kiyoshi is not only a fourth grader but a new generation. You see that he respects his parents and what they say but he still can't always follow their rules. He makes a new friend with Makot who has money and spends in it on him and his friends. This friendship is something Kiyoshi likes but not his parents. In the next part it will be interesting to see if he follows his parent's wishes.
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