The+Song+of+the+Buffalo+Boy

Jodi - Explanation: The Song of the Buffalo Boy is about a girl named Loi who is a con lai or half breed because her father was an american soldier and her mother is a vietnamese lady. Loi has always wanted to know more about her father but her mother has never been open about it. Loi loves a boy named Khai who tends the water buffalos. Loi wants more then anything to mary Khai but her uncle won't let her. Her uncle says that Khai is too poor and young to marry Loi. Instead he and the matchmakers set her up with the mean, but rich, and important Officer Hiep that beat his old wife. If Loi doesn't marry Hiep then Officer Hiep will report her uncle for not supporting the new government, and he will be sent away to "reeducation camp". In desperation Loi and Khai fake Loi's death. Their plan is to go to Saigon and apply to go to America because there is a program where if you are half american you and your family can go to America for free. When Loi gets on the bus to go to Saigon she and Khai are separated. They promise to meet each other in Saigon. Little do they know that Saigon is a city of 4 million people. When she gets to Saigon Loi doesn't know where she is going so when a little boy named Joe tries to steal her stuff they team up to go to America together. Loi and Joe take care of each other and become good friends. Meanwhile after a few weeks Khai hasn't shown up, and Loi is getting really worried. She has the opportunity to go to America through this program and become a rich man named Raymond Smith's adoptive daughter. Loi doesn't know if she should break her promise with Khai and go to America or stay and wait. Loi is starving and desperate so she decides to go to the US. Just when she is about to leave Khai shows up. Khai doesn't want to leave so Loi is faced with one of the toughest decisions of her life.

Alex symbol- We chose for Song of the buffalo boy. Is a buffalo, resembling the buffalo Khai gives Loi and it has an American flag, showing her American heritage. The buffalo also resembles Khai being a buffalo boy and singing the song of the buffalo boy.

Alex main character summary-

The main character in “The song of the Buffalo Boy” is Loi. She is a young 16 year old girl, growing up in a town that doesn't quite seem like home. Loi is an American-Vietnamese girl living in a fully Vietnamese town. The people in the town don't like her mix of heritages. They think of it as a living remembrance of the Vietnamese- American war. Except for Khai, she has loved Khai for as long as she can remember, but their parents don't accept their love for each other, so they are not aloud to marry. This is a huge struggle for Loi, her parents don't think that a rich man will ever want to marry her but then an awful man named Heip comes and offers marriage. For her parents this is wonderful news, but for Loi this will mean she must leave Khai. Loi is a brave girl and goes on a rare and somewhat dangerous adventure. Through this book it really shows that Loi is an independent, determined girl ready to fight for what she wants.
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grace

setting- map of Vietnam

The setting is in Vietnam. The time period is in the late 1900's. The government has a lot of power. The people except the very young and very sick, all have to help in the harvesting. Then the government would take most of the crops. Their are matchmakers who set people up to marry each other. The girls have no say. Their is an engagement party and the man decides if he wants to marry her and the girls parents decide for her. They also are very superstitious. for example loi, the main character, saw a black cat eat a rat and said that today will be a very unlucky day because black cats are bad luck and she was born in the year of the rat.

Jodi: Quotes "Khai removed a dark object from his pocket and pressed it into Loi's palm. 'It's beautiful,' she whispered." -(p.16) This quote represents Khai's love to Loi. The object that he gave her was a water buffalo that he carved. Khai tended the water buffalos which made the carving so special. Later when Loi was lost in the big city of Saigon she kept the carving to give her hope that she would reunite with Khai and they would get married.

"Who were you talking to just now, fatherless con-lai?" (p. 20) In this quote Khai's older,judgmental brother Quy is talking to Loi. Quy doesn't think that Loi is fit to live in their village because she is a half breed or con-lai. Loi is a con-lai because her father was an american soldier and her mother is Vietnamese. Loi doesn't know who her father is, but all she knows is that he was a soldier in the Vietnamese war. Loi is the only con-lai in her village, but when she gets to the big city of Saigon she is suprised by how many con-lais there are.

"Officer Hiep! That man has the manners of a wild boar. And he struts about the village like a rooster among hens. How I despise that man." (p. 37) This quote is when Loi tells Khai that she is engaged to the rich, old man named Officer Hiep. Loi does not want to marry him because she loves Khai. She also doesn't want to marry him because everyone says that his last wife died because he beat her to death. Loi has to marry Officer Hiep though because she is a con-lai or a half breed, and her uncle thinks that Officer Hiep is the only one that will marry her.

"Mr Smith is asking you if you have heard about the Amerasian Homecoming Program between the American and Vietnamese governments." (p 116) This quote is when their village goes to the near by touristy village named Da Lat to sell their goods. While there Loi meets a former American soldier named Raymond Smith who was visiting Vietnam to try to find his daughter that he had with a vietnamese lady. While he is there he tells Loi that if she goes to Saigon she can apply to go to America completely for free. She can bring her husband and mother if she wants. Loi has always wanted to know who her father was and what he was like so this idea was a good one. She decides then and there that she must go to Saigon.

 "It's so big," she whispered."I didn't know Saigon was so big." (p.133) This quote occurs when Loi arrives in the city of Saigon after being separated with Khai. Loi had only been to 2 other small villages beside her own, so the big city of 4 million people was a big shock. She was especially surprised to see all of the beggars.