Ha is a 10-year-old girl who wants to feel close to her family but instead feels very alone. She has three older brothers, but does not really play with them or feel close to them. In the poem “Kim Hà,” she says her brothers tease her, calling her names like “River Horse.” She says she “can’t make her brothers go live elsewhere,” which makes me think she wants to be separate from them. But then in “Birthday Wishes,”she says she “wishes she could do what boys do.” It’s like she wants to be close to them but at the same time she doesn’t, so she pushes them away. It’s the same with her mom. In “Kim Hà,” she says she still “loves being near her mother” and is always just “three steps away.” But then in “Birthday Wishes,” Ha says she wishes her mother wouldn’t “chide her,” and doesn’t talk about feeling close to her at all. I think she wants to be close to her family but doesn’t know how.
Ha is a 10-year-old girl who wants to feel close to her family but instead feels very alone. She has three older brothers, but does not really play with them or feel close to them. In the poem “Kim Hà,” she says her brothers tease her, calling her names like “River Horse.” She says she “can’t make her brothers go live elsewhere,” which makes me think she wants to be separate from them. But then in “Birthday Wishes,”she says she “wishes she could do what boys do.” It’s like she wants to be close to them but at the same time she doesn’t, so she pushes them away. It’s the same with her mom. In “Kim Hà,” she says she still “loves being near her mother” and is always just “three steps away.” But then in “Birthday Wishes,” Ha says she wishes her mother wouldn’t “chide her,” and doesn’t talk about feeling close to her at all. I think she wants to be close to her family but doesn’t know how.
Tom doesn't like attending church, he endures it, and is restive all through it. He has gone many times though, he knows the prayer so well that his ear detects any small change made by the clergyman from the regular route of the prayer. Tom doesn't like change because he considers any changes to the normal prayer unfair, and scoundrelly.
