Throughout the memoir, GB balances the story of his family as a personal narrative about individuals with suggesting a collective refugee experience. What is the function of juxtaposing the individual and the collective? How are experiences of trauma or abandonment understood through the lens of a nation’s experience of war? In what ways are experiences unique and to what effect?

Choose a splash (one panel that takes up an entire page) or a spread (a panel that takes up two pages). Analyze GB’s style of illustration and the content of the image. What theme(s) does the image address, and how effective are his choices in rendering the scene? Some elements to consider are color, composition, the style and expression of figures and faces, the relationship between the foreground and background, and any accompanying text.

The beginning of the memoir focuses on the role of GB’s grandmothers during the First Indochina War. How are Thi Mot’s and Le Nhi’s experiences similar? How are they different? What role do these women play in Dzung Chung and Tri Huu’s upbringing and subsequent development as adults?