A Well-Supported Argument: Examining Dialogue in Stories

E-Page 95
 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

In “My Father’s Chinese Wives,” the father’s quest to find a Chinese wife is a cause for anxiety among his daughters. Loh develops this theme through descriptions of the father’s odd and difficult nature, through details about his quest, and perhaps most vividly, through dialogue.

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ANALYZE & WRITE

Write one or two paragraphs analyzing how Loh develops this theme, focusing on the dialogue:

  1. Skim the story, noting different situations in which dialogue is used—for instance, in the conversations between the narrator and her sister and among the narrator, her sister, her father, and Zhou Ping. In what ways do these bits of dialogue illustrate the anxiety that the daughters feel about the father’s quest for a wife, about the results of this quest, and about the daughters’ relationship with their father?
  2. The tension between the father and one of the daughters (Kaitlin) comes to a head in paragraphs 116–21. What does the dialogue in this section say about what has—or hasn’t—been resolved between these two characters?

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