Morgan Holleran's Lit Seminar - "Double Face"

I felt that overall my Lit Seminar went very well even though the class was split up into 2 different groups that day. My passage was from "Double Face", on the Jong family. The excerpt i chose was on the bottom of page 298 to the top of page 299. It began with "After the first day..." and went to "... She was quite plump".

My first question was Do you think that Lindo and Waverly each having the same crooked nose shows something about their relationship and/or personalities? I believed that the crooked nose shows a different personality than most other people, and the fact that they have the same nose shows that even though they do not believe to be similar, this is proof. The nose is a physical trait that will always be there, no matter what they try to do to change it. My group discussion elaborated on this question very well, believing that this is a sign of similarity. Kat Huang described it in a way that everyone understood, and the people who spoke after her each believed the same as she did. She said that the physical appearance is a symbol for their like-ness, and they will always show the trait, which is proof of how they are so similar.

My next question was Because of the cultural difference between China and America, even though Waverly was brought up in a semi-Chinese culture, how do you think her personal life would have changed if she was brought up in China, or just in a more Chinese environment while still living in America? Do you think her relationship with her mother would be different if she was raised in China? My group decided that if Waverly had grown up in China, she would have not played chess, but she would have played a different game, because of her being such a prodigy at a young age. We agreed that she would still be succesful because of her dedication to the certain game she chose. Responding to the second portion of the question, we also agreed that her relationship with her mom wouldn't be so distant. Because of the cultural difference and beliefs between China and America, this is considered a main reason of their arguments, and that they dont always see eye-to-eye because of the social and cultural differences. If she had grown up in China, their beliefs would be much more similar, and this would most likely have eliminated most of their problems in the mother-daughter relationship.

How would you have answered the questions of you were in my group for this day? Or if you were, is there anything that you wanted to say but never did? A lso, do you have any other reactions of this discussion?