"FAMILY"
by Pa Chin
"Whatever people told him to do, he did, as if these acts were duties he was obliged to perform."
Vocabulary
- ancestral: (adj) relating to a person one is descended from
- auspicious: (adj) favorable or promising
- to bemoan: (v) to look upon with regret, to express grief over
- compliance: (n) agreement
- credence: (n) acceptance
- fate:
(n) destiny
- matchmaker: (n) a person who arranges marriages
- obligation: (n) a commitment to something
- plaudit: (n) praise
- prestige: (n) fame
- resentment: (n) anger
Materials
- Excerpt from “The Family”
Sidney Shapiro, A Sampler of Chinese Literature from the Ming Dynasty to Mao Zedong, (Chinese Literature Press, 1996)
175-176.
- Graphic Organizer
Procedures
- Students will identify vocabulary they already know and try to determine the meaning of
the other words through context clues and the dictionary.
- Teacher will point out that this selection is an excerpt from a longer story that was
written in 1931.
- Students will read the passage to themselves and answer the questions below.
- After students have discussed responses as a
class, they will complete the graphic organizer.
Questions
- What is the main conflict of this passage?
- What does Juexin’s father say is his obligation to do?
- How does Juexin feel about what his father tells him to do?
- What does Juexin end up doing? Why?
Writing
Rewrite this selection, changing the resolution of the conflict.
How would you react if your father said he was going to arrange your
marriage? Write a three-way dialogue between your father, yourself
and your cousin that you want to marry, Mei. Tell your father what you think of having
your marriage arranged.