Conversations with my Parents by Oanh Thi Tran

1. What is ironic about the way the author and the father become close? What has to happen to the father?
It is ironic because the became closer over an event that is seen as being terrible, and pretty much over the fathers pain and suffering

2. How would you characterise the conversation that the author has with her parents?
They could be characterized as brief and maybe even awkward to some extent

3. What is it that worries the author most about these conversations?

The author worries about how she never tells their parents that they love them.

4. There is a gap between the author’s need to express feelings common in western countries and her family’s lack of desire to express their feelings verbally. How does the family still express their feelings for their child, just not verbally?

The family expresses their feelings through trying to show the author how to live their life, and trying to make them feel needed.