No, I'm not hearing things

2. Voice from the Wall

3. Most of the chapter was really confusing to me. In the beginning, the begger and basement scenes seemed really unrealistic. I couldn't decide whether she was telling the truth or telling something that had come up from her overactive imagination. After I got past the begger and the basement, the chapter started getting really scary. All the things that Lena and her mother, Betty, saw were so terrifying. It must've been terrible living in such fear and always having to look over your shoulder to check if something is about to eat you or not. Lena and Betty saw all the demons and dangers that most other people, including Lena's father, could never imagine. I can understand that Betty is trying to protect Lena by scaring her so that she can be aware of her surroundings, but that isn't the only way to protect your daiughter. After the miscarriage, I couldn't understand what Tan was trying to say. Although I re-read the chapter a couple times, I'm still confused on what message she's trying to tell us.

4. The relationship between Betty and her husband is a strange one. I don't understand why they got married if Betty couldn't understand what her husband was saying and vis versa. In addition to the language barrier, Betty's husband doesn't seem to notice the physical clues that she's dropping because he doesn't understand that she is sad because of the miscarriage. He also doesn't see the fear she's constantly living in. Lena has the task of traslating between her parents, but because she translates incorrectly sometimes, their relationship is even more complicated. Betty is in turmoil and pain and her husband doesn't seem to notice a thing.

5. Tan uses imagery in this chapter beautifully. She describes all the things that Betty and Lena see in so much detail. The horrible things that Lena saw just in her school playground were brought to life with the help of Tan's imagery. She also describes things like the photo of her mother, the woman in Chinatown, and the apartment complex in such a way that I felt myself walking with Lena and experiencing the things with her.

6. The conflict in this story is mostly internal. Lena has the challenge of choosing whether she should translate exactly what her mother is saying, and create chaos, or she can lie about it and postpone the damage for later. She also has to live paranoid of everything around her because of what her mother taught her.