Research Paper
“Red Bean Cakes” Reading Assignment Worksheet.
Type in the answers to ALL the questions using your own analysis and critical thinking from the reading.
The Canton, SOHO
1. What cultural elements (food, people, customs concern etc.) does the authors use to characterize this place and was there any unusual vocabulary?
Answer: The cultural element the author uses to characterize the place is the Canton which is a Chinese food. Unusual vocabulary used here is “Latamangeshkar”.
2. What are the significant/central images of this section and which emotions dominate?
Answer: The central image of this section is food and love emotions emerge as the author feels attached to her family whenever she remembers.
3. What is the author’s tone towards her subject in this section and how does she set the tone?
Answer: The writer’s tone is “appreciative” because she reveals pleasure of how she used to live with her grandmother and step-grandfather.
4. Describe the significant moment/person from the author’s life that is evoked for her by this place and what features of the present place evoke the past for her?
Answer: The significant person from the author’s life is her grandmother, she remembers how her grandmother used to cook in old British Guiana.
5. The theme/truth she is trying to convey in this section and how is food related?
Answer: She conveys the theme of love and marriage, that is the bond that existed between her grandparents. Here food cooking is used as the activity that reveals out the bond.
Omi’s Southhall
6. What cultural elements (food, people, customs concern etc.) does the authors use to characterize this place and was there any unusual vocabulary?
Answer: The author uses local dialect such as ‘bhindi” to characterize the place.
7. What are the significant/central images of this section and which emotions dominate?
Answer: The central image of this section is friendship. The author describes how they used to be friends with Kuldip. Also, she describes how college students used to meet at restaurants to conduct their friendships.
8. What is the author’s tone towards her subject in this section and how does she set the tone?
Answer: The tone of the author is “accusatory”. the author suggests that the students from colleges gathered in restaurants to do wrong things that they could not have done in the presence of their parents.
9. Describe the significant moment/person from the author’s life that is evoked for her by this place and what features of the present place evoke the past for her?
Answer: The significant person that evokes the author is Kuldip that treated her well and others used to think that she was his girlfriend. Dining is the feature that evokes her past as she recalls how her father used to travel a long way to town for Chinese cooking.
10. The theme/truth she is trying to convey in this section and how is food related?
Answer: The author conveys the theme of good and evil whereby she says that students from colleges used to gather at restaurants to chat up with boyfriends, listen to gangster raps, and drink, and they could have not done all these in home. Students use food as a camouflage to do evils.
Café Jam, Brixton
11. What cultural elements (food, people, customs concern etc.) does the authors use to characterize this place and was there any unusual vocabulary?
Answer: The author uses different types of foods to characterize the place.
12. What are the significant/central images of this section and which emotions dominate?
Answer: The central image of this section is here is “hardworking” whereby the author reveals how she was industrious in cooking and how she had learned from her mother. There was no any unusual vocabulary in this section.
13. What is the author’s tone towards her subject in this section and how does she set the tone?
Answer: The author reveals “appreciative tone”. She tells us how her mother used to tech her on how to cook and that is why she is showing pleasure.
14. Describe the significant moment/person from the author’s life that is evoked for her by this place and what features of the present place evoke the past for her?
Answer: The significant person from the author’s life is her mother. Her mother used to teach her how to cook and anytime she is cooking, she remembers the past life with her mother.
15. The theme/truth she is trying to convey in this section and how is food related?
Answer: The author reveals theme of heritage. Her mother used to be the best cook, therefore, she also inherited similar attributes.
China Town, New York
16. What cultural elements (food, people, customs concern etc.) does the authors use to characterize this place and was there any unusual vocabulary?
Answer: The author uses the outlook of Chinatown to characterize the place. In Chinatown people had an aggressive competition for space, wide roads, and buildings, unlike in London where there were narrow streets. In this section, there is no unusual vocabulary.
17. What are the significant/central images of this section and which emotions dominate?
Answer: The central image here is finding her mother’s red bean cakes. Fear emotions dominate in this section from the way she perceives the China town, how tall buildings were, and how people run to crossroads.
18. What is the author’s tone towards her subject in this section and how does she set the tone?
Answer: The tone that she expresses in this section is “awestruck” because she is amazed with how Chinatown looks; tall buildings, wide roads, and the way people competed for space.
19. Describe the significant moment/person from the author’s life that is evoked for her by this place and what features of the present place evoke the past for her?
Answer: The significant moment here is when she meets an amazing outlook of the Chinatown very different from London where she comes from. The features that evoke her past is the “bean cakes”.
20. The theme/truth she is trying to convey in this section and how is food related?
Answer: She conveys the theme of change. In London they used pounds as currency, but when she reached in Chinatown New York, she finds out that they are using US dollars. Also, the way Chinatown looks are different from how London looks, that is why she is amazed on reaching Chinatown.