Capt Questions

What are your thoughts and questions about the story? You might relect upon the characters thier problems, the title or other ideas in the story?

I think that this story is about a girl caught between what her family wants for her and what she wants in her life. Hana asks everyone she could possibly get advise from and takes it into consideration. I think that this story is based on regrets. Hana always talks about how nervouse she is and thinks about how it would be different if she didn't get on the shop. When Hana recives a letter from Taro I think she becomes even more nervouse because Taro is not showing who he really is through the letters and is hiding something from Hana. This way the aranged marriage seems to Hana as if she is just being used to support Taro's lonliness. I think that Hana finally decides to get on the ship to American because she wants to take the risk and hopefully live an independent life with her soon to be husband. What I found odd in the story is how Hana and Taro hardly talk to each other when they first meet, and only speak when nessesary.

2. Why did I ever leave Japan, she wondered bitterly. Why did I ever listen to my uncle? And yet she knew it was she herself who had begun the chain of events that placed her on this heaving ship.

This quote represents regret and how Hana feels about the whole arranged marriage Hana could have said no to her uncle and told him she was not ready for marriage or that she wanted to meet him first but it was her desicision to listen to her uncle and make the trip to America to marry this stranger. I think that in a sense she would have liked to stay with her family as long as she could but she decided it was time for her to become an adult and move on with her life. I don't think that Hana is mature enough to be marrying Taro if she has to ask everyone she knkow if it is the right desicion.

What does this story say about people in general? In what ways does it remind you of people you have known or expirences you have had? You may also write stories you have read or movies, works of art or television shows you have seen. Use examples from the stories to explain your thinking.

This story shows how unsure and immature people can be. The consiquence of these actions are their regrets. I think that after Hana got off the ship she still regreted going to American and marrying Taro. Hana hardly knows any english and is going to have a hard time communicating with people in America and not even her husband. This story reminds me of the movie "Titanic". It shows how impulsive Jack was to get on that ship and sail off to America not knowing what to expect. Hana does the same thing except that she has thought thinkgs over and has many regrets where as Jack does not.

Evaluate the story. What qualites does it have that make it effective of ineffective for you as a reader? Give specific examples from the story to support your reasons for your evauluation.

One quality that made this story ineffective was the fact that not many people that could relate to it. I had trouble relating to a story about a girl from Japan moving to America. I also found the story to be uneventful. Most of the story was of Hana reminishing about how she shouldn't have left her family. The story would have been alot better if there was more about the meeting of Hana and Taro and what happened to them after they settled into American and started a new life.