Half and Half from Joy Luck Club

Half and Half:

What did Rose’s mother used to carry to church services at the First Chinese Baptist

Church?

• a hymnal

• a big heavy black Bible

• a small leatherette Bible

• A small picture of her dead parents

Half and Half:

What makes Rose sure that her mother knows the Bible is still under a table leg in her

kitchen?

• because her mother mentions it often

• because her mother is not the greatest housekeeper and yet the Bible is still clean white after twenty years

• because the Bible is in plain sight

• because she has caught her mother reading it

Half and Half:

How did the decision making start and then change in Rose’s marriage?

• At first she decided everything but then her husband took over.

• At first her husband decided everything but then he lost a malpractice lawsuit and wanted her to make all of the decisions for them.

• At first she and her husband decided everything equally but then he wouldn’t let her make any decisions.

• At first they voted on everything but later they drew straws to see who would get to make a decision.

Half and Half:

What did Rose find out “faith” was?

• an illusion that somehow one is in control

• just God’s way of fooling people

• simply a way of pretending

• a silly way of behaving that Chinese people engage in

Half and Half:

What was the name of Rose’s mother’s little Chinese book and what was in it?

• Foolish Chinese Children and Their Parents showed how parents had failed their children by coddling them

• Wickedness in Children told stories of very young children who were evil.

• The Twenty-six Malignant Gates showed how children are predisposed to certain dangers on certain days based on their Chinese birthdates.

• Drowned Children in America which had pictures in it of children who had drowned after coming to America to live

Half and Half:

What did Rose and her mother do early on the morning after Rose’s brother drowned?

• They prayed at the First Chinese Baptist Church.

• They spent the morning confessing their sins.

• They went back to the beach to try to find him.

• They yelled at each other and accused each other of being responsible for his death.

Half and Half:

Why did Rose’s mother throw her blue sapphire ring

into the water?

• because blue was the same color as the water

• because she thought it would divert the Coiling Dragon so that he would release her son from the water

• because she thought God would exchange her son for the ring

• because she felt guilty having such a beautiful ring after she had let her son drown

Half and Half:

Why did Rose’s mother throw an inner tube attached to a fishing pole into the water?

• She believed it would locate her lost son.

• She just couldn’t think of anything else to do.

• She believed that Chinese fishermen had used the same technique.

• She thought that Bing would respond to the gadget.

Half and Half:

When her mother gave up finding Bing, what emotion did Rose feel?

• absolute joy

• great sorrow

• relief

• blinding anger

Half and Half:

When Rose took the Bible out from under the table leg, what did she find written in it?

• her mother’s confession to God about losing her son.

• her mother’s angry statements about the death

• her brother’s name written in it in erasable pencil under “Deaths”

• just a small notation about her brother in the back written in blue ink