Quote #1: “She tells me she’s Irish, too, and it’s nice to see Alberta going out with Irish boys.” -A mother of a girl that Frank is dating. Page: 199
Response #1: This situation can be found at multiple times in this book. People suddenly have a liking to Frank just because he’s Irish. He was born in Ireland and raised there and people can almost immediately pick that up from his accent. Throughout the book Frank tends to run into Irish people and they usually help him out. They usually say a contributing factor to them helping him is that he’s Irish and “we Irish people need to stick together”. Frank picked up this liking to other Irish people and followed it by living in an Irish boarding home.
This makes sense to me. Ireland, especially the area that Frank came from is a poor place. The people who live in these poor places need to stick together and they do. They help feed each other and Frank writes about times when people came over to his house. He says his mother would always offer the visitor a place to sit and a cup of tea. If I grew up in circumstances like these, I would gladly stay with people who had similar experiences. Because they did, they would be friendly, kind, and sharing people.
Question #1: If you had a hard child hood and you meet someone who had a similar childhood do you think you would get along well with them?
Quote #2: “There are girls in the class and they are probably thinking they should move away from me” --Frank talking about the classes’ reactions to the teacher reading a paper about his childhood. In the paper he writes about having to sleep on 2nd hand mattresses with stains. Page: 173
Response#2: Frank really has to learn how to pick stories about his past to tell people. I think it’s a big problem he faces in America. He isn’t a good judge when it comes to deciding what to tell people. He hasn’t yet figured out how to affect people positively with what he says. In the end his paper actually made people feel bad for him. He hasn’t yet figured out how to make good conversations by telling people his stories; instead he just makes things awkward.
I have been in Franks shoes. There have been times when I don’t know what to tell people because I don’t know how it will affect them and our current conversation. I didn’t want to make things awkward and I am not sure how to prevent that so I don’t say anything. What I did to fix this problem is get to know the person I am talking to before I tell them stories about my past. That is what I would recommend to Frank, just get to know people better. Then it all works out.
Question #2: Have you ever had this problem? How did you overcome it?
Response: I do agree to what you said about Irish people are helping Frank because he is Irish. I also agree that because they came from poor neighbor hoods they are really good at helping each other. I do agree that I would want to stay with people like that because they would be kind and friendly.
ReplyDeleteAnswer 1#- Yes because we have similarity and that is how you make friends because you have some same experience.
Response 2- I do agree with you Mauro that Frank can not say something interesting to the person or a group because he doesn't know what to say. I also agree to the part when knowing the person will help you because If I talk to someone new I don't know what to say so I don't say anything like what you said.
Answer 2- To over come this problem I did the same thing you did or just experiment and talk about many things and see what they think is interesting.