Abcstangledthreads

Abcstangledthreads - Transcript

The   ABCs of

Freedom
Hope
Dreams
Education
Opportunity
New Life
Family
Change
DecisionsTraditions
America

“Good­bye 
land of 
war,   land 
of 
prisons,  
land of 
l ies .”    
Deat
hRape
Filth
Hunge
r
Miss 
Sayapong
PASS
Schoo
l

Confusion
“’Look Grandma!  I pointed at 
my cup.  The squares turned into 
water.’  We shook our heads at 
each other.  How were we 
supposed to know?”
“This is cold?”
“I didn’t understand.  
‘My own…room?”  
“Will I kill us with what I 
don’t know?”
“Parents always told 
their kids who they could 
be with, what they could 
do.  If the kids 
disobeyed, shouldn’t they 
get hit?  I struggled to 
hide my confusion.”
English
$$$$

What religion do I 
believe?
Do I want to be a good 
Hmong girl?
Do I want a traditional 
Hmong life?
Do I want to 
be 
“American” 
or “Hmong”?
Can I 
be 
both?
Do I listen to my 
family?
Do I listen to my 
friends?
Do I lie?  “I have never 
lied before.”
Are Heather and 
Lisa good for me?
How do I handle my anger towards Grandma?
How should I confront her?
How do I make 
Grandma proud?
How do I 
make her 
smile?
Where do I want 
to fit in? Decisions

E
l 
eP
ha
n 
t
uck
Nhia 

F amily

Love Hate
Caregiver
DependentProud
Traditional
Pa’ndau
Acceptanc
e
Protector
Strong
Vibrant
Lost
Life  
Line
Dominant Independent
Grandma

Mai struggles to keep her Hmong
identity and traditions while trying to
adjust to her new American life.
“The Hmong are fiercely independent hills tribes
who have populated the southwestern Chinese
Provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Kwangsi for
more than 4,200 years.” p 221

Mai struggles constantly with the independence a
new American life offers and the obligation to her
Grandmother and her previous way of life.
“’In my home Mai will obey me,’ Grandma insisted.
Heather whispered to me in English, ‘A battle for
Mai’s soul. Who will win?’
‘Me’, I replied under my breath. I chomped into the
cross and bit off the whole top.” p 163

“My hands touched my sash and
my collar, and I thought,
Grandma is here, and I touched
my silver necklace, here, and my
jingling hat, here. Then I lifted
my hands high into the air and
twirled once slowly, here and
everywhere.” p 219
Mai blames herself for her
grandmother’s death. She came
to America with her
grandmother at her side and
now she must continue on the
rest of the journey without her.

“Lies could help, I reasoned.
They weren’t always wrong.
It would be okay for me.
One tiny harmless lie, only one.” p87
“If I told the truth, Heather and Lisa would hate me.” p87
Mai wants to 
do the right thing… 
but what is right gets 
more unclear everyday.

“I remembered the encouraging words of Miss Sayapong in camp: ‘Keep 
learning, Mai. That is how to thank me.’” p176
Mai works hard 
studying during her first Summer in 
America so that she may join her regular
eighth grade class in the fall.
“I didn’t think much about pa’ndau anymore.
My eyes were hungry for words! p 174

“Mai is beautiful
as an orchid,
but has the strength
of a tiger.” p 219
Mai is a smart girl with
hopes and dreams of a
better tomorrow in
America. She struggles
often with her own
emotions. She wants to
follow her Hmong
traditions, but she is
curious about the
American way of life.
Mai begins to find herself
and slowly untangles the
threads of her life.

Happy New Year!
“A new year of luck,
health, and happiness
jingled in the air,
and here I was safe
and swirling, inside it.”
p 220
As the New Year arrives, Mai finally begins to make peace with 
herself over her inner struggles. She finally understands there is 
a way to balance the traditions and beliefs of her old Hmong 
lifestyle with her new life here in America.

O Is for Obedient. Mai struggles to understand how and why American children disobey their
elders so easily. It’s
almost fascinating to
her to the point where
she wants to try it
herself.

P Is for PASS, Preparation for American Secondary School. This is where Mai learned many things about American culture. She felt safe and
protected there by her teacher
Miss Sayapong who helped
her get to America.

Q Is for Qeej, the wind instruments made of bamboo. This symbolizes the happiness Grandmother felt
when she witnessed Hmong
customs being practiced in
America, like the dancing the
girls performed.

RIs for Refugee. Mai
spent ten years of her
life as a prisoner in
camps. Her dream
was to be with her
family in America and
not spend her life as a
Refugee anymore.

S Is for Secrets. In America Mai learns that there are many secrets in her precious
family. The secret
Grandmother keeps from
her is the most hurtful, yet
Mai waits months to confront
her about it.

T Is for Threadworm, the stomach sickness Mai suffers from. She caught it in the refugee camp and it plagued her until she was
treated by American doctors
and medicine.

for Unite
“Only the shaman
could rid my body of
its bad spirits. Only
the shaman could
unite my wayward
souls.” page 1

for Vietnam
“The Thai, the Lao,
even most Americans
didn’t believe that the
Pathet Lao – the
Communists who
were the new rulers
of Laos – had used
poisoned gas against
us after the Vietnam
War.” page 10

for Westerners
“Hmong children never disobeyed.
From what I saw last night, I guessed
American children did all the time. It
seemed as if nobody was in charge of
an American family.” page 90

for Xenophobia
“Heather had told me about
the gangs. How when the
Hmong first came to
Providence, other kids
picked on us, beat us up.
Some Hmong started
sticking together for
protection and fighting
back.” page 125

for Yang
“… my Yang ancestry.
Slowly I traced the whorls
of Yang men who had
fought for freedom from
the Chinese, Yang women
who tried to save the
forbidden Hmong alphabet
by stitching the characters
into pa’ndau, Yang who
fought the Japanese and
then the Communists.”
page 212

for Zis
“ ‘…The doctors are
doing some tests.
They took blood
from you and
some samples
of, uh, your quav
and zis [urine].’”
page 133
Characters use Hmong words
throughout the novel, lending strong
cultural authenticity.
  
The ABCs of 
Tangled Threads 
created by
Amy Parsons (A­G)
Kim Irvin (H­N)
Nickey Druley (O­T)
Susan Lynch (U­Z)