... past when she dreaded to face An- Mei. Twenty years ago Rose was a happy child living in the midst of a loving family. One day the family took a trip to the beach, and Rose was given the responsibility of looking after her younger brothers, named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing. She had some trouble controlling her youngest brother, Bing, who wanted to ... fears that Rose will stop being Chinese. Finally, "Half and Half" refers to the state of the Hsus before and after the drowning of Bing. In fact, Tan described the beach where the boy dies as "a giant bowl, cracked in half, the other ha...

• Word Count: 6459
• Approx Pages: 26
• Grade Level: High School

... also some feeling that he had stretched the facts. He was encouraged to consider a sequel that would closely follow his voyage on a hapless Australian whaling barque and some light-hearted beach-combing in Tahiti. At this point, his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene, who appeared as Toby in "Typee" and who had shared the earlier part of Melville's adventures, read the book ... ...

• Word Count: 2748
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography

... , when they moved to Norfolk, Virginia. In Norfolk, Norine worked in a sewing factory making navy uniforms. It was during this time that her youngest brother, Babe, was killed on Normandy Beach. She recalls vividly taking him to the bus station to leave for basic training. Norine says Babe knew he would never come back home. Norine recalls the use of stamps ... ...

• Word Count: 3427
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... we go here and we go there, have women, wives, girlfriends, but we never leave the place we"re born. We never grow up, really .we start out on the beach, two barefoot boys, looking out into the goddamn sea, and seeing things" (167). They physically left country and families, but their hearts always remained over there. As the narrator is ... ...

• Word Count: 2760
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School