The+Song+of+the+Buffalo+Boy

= Song of the Buffalo Boy =

By: Sherry Garland

[[image:Screen_shot_2011-03-17_at_7.15.33_PM.png caption="Map of Vietnam"]]
//Da Nang**:**// In this village where Loi was born and lives in there are many social customs that are different from the USA. One social custom that is very different and I think is strange is that your parents chose your spouse. Usually the parents don't care if the spouse is kind, has a good personality, or that their child likes them. The parents just want their children to be married to someone that is wealthier than they are. Another social custom is that everyone has to work in the fields to pick crops unless you are really old, really young or really sick. Here children whose parents are one Vietnamese and one American are disliked by everyone. These people are called con-lais or half-breeds. In this case Loi's Mother is Vietnamese and apparently the soldier payed her to sleep with him one night during the war. So since this Loi is treated unfairly and doesn't have the same rights or privileges as someone who is all Vietnamese in their village. //Da Lat:// This village is a more touristy village than Da Nang because they have the market and some hotels. The people in Da Lat are mostly tourists visiting. But if they aren't they are wealthier because they have better jobs and houses and they can also sell stuff at the market easier because they are just right there. //Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon):// In this city mostly everyone is poor. People are living in a park on the ground, people are starving, people are poor, and most people don't have a job to make money. If you do have a job you don't make a lot of money because not a lot of people have money to buy your products. So when Loi meets Joe in Ho Chi Minh City they have to go through various tasks to get money or food. The tasks are usually lead buy Joe and have to do with either stealing from someone or tricking someone. People in this village feel the complete opposite about con-lais because they would rather be a con-lai than a full Vietnamese. These people would rather be con-lais because if they can prove that they are half American than they are allowed to travel to America. Before they go to America they have to go through a long process. They have to fill out papers, be interviewed and wait a long time to see if your name is on the list. ==
 * Time period:** This book is set in the year 1989.
 * Place:** This book takes place in Vietnam. The main character Loi, is born in Da Nang. When it is the end of the crop season for the people in the village of Da Nang they go to Da Lat to sell the goods they had grown in that season. Loi's dream is to go to America one day. Since she did not want to marry Officer Hiep, but she did want to marry Khai. She and Khai decided to fake her death and then travel to ﻿ Saigon as they called it. That was its old name and it was not polite to call it Saigon now because the name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City.
 * Social Customs:**
 * History Lesson:** In this book you are either rich or poor. There is no in-between. This is because there is trouble between the social classes. This is because the money distributors are rich so they take more for themselves and end up giving less to the lower class or the poor. If you are poor than you have to find ways to get food and money to survive. I don't think this is right. There should be an in-between for the amount of money you have. So there should be a lower class, a middle class and an upper class so the money is distributed better. I think that is how it is in the USA now.

Loi is the main character and she is very courageous. She faked her death so she could runaway to America with the man she loved, Khai. It took courage to lie to her family and to not know how their situation in America would be. She is also very smart. Loi thinks about different topics such as her fake death, marrying Hiep, and more. When Loi thinks about these things she thinks of every situation and how things would be affected. She is also a worrier, wondering how things would be after she ran away, things about he American father. Khai is another one of the main characters. He is truthful. When he promises something he sticks to his promise. Also, Khai is talented. He carves wooden animals and they sell for a lot in the stores. This is how Loi figures he is still around and is looking for him. Joe is also a main character. Joe is very manipulated. he tricks people and is a beggar. He gets very annoying when he first starts showing up. Also, Joe is convincing because he convinced Loi to be his older sister and she would try to get him to America. Loi did a lot for Joe but in my opinion never really did anything for her.
 * Main Characters**:

In the book Song of the Buffalo Boy, Loi grows up in her little hut. She is known as a Con-lai, which is half American and half Asian. In her village this is wrong, bad, and gross. They figure that her mother slept with an American for money. This did happen but she did it for a cause to help her mother would was very sick. Loi has a crush on a boy in the village named Khai. He likes her back but his family does not approve of a con-lai, no one does until Officer Hiep proposes to her. She does in no way like Hiep. He is a drunk and beat his past wife but she has no choice over it because her Uncle says that he is the only man that would marry her anyway and he is rich. She must marry him.Loi plans ways to get out of the marriage including, faking her death and running off to America with Khai. This is what she chooses to do. Her and Khai get seperated at the bus station and Loi lives about 2-3 weeks on the streets with Joe struggling for money. Joe kind-of took her under his wing and together they tried to go to America. After 2 weeks, Raymond Smith, a American comes to Vietnam and and Loi had previously met him back in another village but now Smith wants to take her to American. The only problem is that she was still separated from Khai. She had promised to wait for him and they would go to America together.
 * The plot**:

2 IMPORTANT QUOTES: "Wait!" Khai returned the shout as he ran toward the departing bus..."Wait for me in Saigon," he yelled as the bus pulled away. "I'll catch the next bus and join you. Wait for me, Loi. Promise me you'll wait." This is important because when Loi and Khai get separated they promise each other to wait for each other. Later in the book this becomes more important because she cannot find Khai and is about to break her promise but last minute found him. Loi was going to break her promise. (p.129-130)

"i"ll always love you, but my home is here in Vietnam." This is important because Khai is saying that he loves Loi and wants to be with her but he cannot leave where he is from.Loi completely understands and Khai understands if Loi still wants to go to America without him. He just wanted to let her know that he loves her.(p.258)

for our symbol we choose a water buffalo because Loi really likes a boy named Kahi who is a buffalo boy and she really likes his song of the buffalo. So that is why we chose this also because the book is called song of the buffalo boy so we thought that this would work really well for our book. also because Kahi gave her a carving of a water buffalo and it is one of her only and most prized posseions.

FOR GETTING THE AUDIENCE INVOLVED we tell them all about the book and have them guess what happens at the end •beginning Loi introduce her •introduce the family •the problem (marriage and hates the man she is to marry) •meets an American soldier •he says that there is a program that Amerasian children can go to America, bring their family and meet their father •separated from Khai while waiting for the response from Ho Chi Minh City(where she would enter for the program) •soldier offers to take Loi w/ him b/c he couldn't find his own daughter they will leave the next day •is his offer taken or denied