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The Good Old Days

Ho was reminiscing back her childhood days after her grandfather died. His funeral was done in such a grand where roads were closed, there were 50 men were blowing oomp-pahs and hundreds of banner-bearers. It was like a parade, but a sad one. All of his five sons were fighting for each others share of wealth. As grandfather had instructed in his will, all the five sons were supposed to be getting an equal number of shares but they were in greed. No, they did not want the wealth to be divided equally. In the end, all of the five brothers received nothing but a debt of RM10,000. All of the 150 acres of rubber estate, 2 hardware stores, 10 houses and 3 farms were gone just like that.

Plot
Exposition: Description of the funeral of writers

grandfather.

Rising Action: The meeting among the sons of the

elder. Some of them suggested to sell everything and divide the proceeds among themselves. Some of them did not agree with the suggestion. At last, the meeting broke up into shouting matches.

Climax : The five sons tried to get their best share of

wealth. The second son found a white lawyer while the eldest son has hired the same lawyer who drew up the elders will and the writers father planed to go for a chinese lawyer. The writers father then decided to open a shop selling tinned food after the case is settled.

Falling action: The Fifth Auntie of the writer tried to

commit suicide. The second Auntie suggested that they share the property according to whatever means are agreeable.
Denouement : The judge decided that the property

should be sold to the reasonable bidders and the money divided equally among the five brothers after the payment of legal fees. At last, they were left debt of $10,000.

Grandfather had gone to an Indian lawyer

who drew up a brief will leaving all his possesions equally to his children

In real world
The older will go to a lawyer and make a will to divide the possesions to the generation. I think this is a wise action to prevent quarrel between the family.

The methods of division of properties cause the

meetings to broke up into shouting matches between the brothers because they think the methods are unfair.

In real world
This situation often happen in our surrounding

especially among the rich family. Family members will just end up their relationship because of the division of properties from ancestors.

Father had been trying to build up his business as a

middleman trading in rubber. But the shop was not doing well because there was a glut of synthetic rubber and recent American quotas.

In real world
Nowadays, they are many business man failed in their

investment because of their unwise decision. So, it is important for one to think carefully before making any decision to prevent any loss in their business.

Confusing Passages
How did the writers grandfather died? Did he died

because of his old age or there is some other reason? What was the role and position of the writers grandfather in the society until anyone who was in town came for his burial? How did the Ho family settle the debt of $10,000 at the end of the story?

Literary Device
Metaphor a) Page 196, 5th paragraph Your kong-kong is just dead

one day, and youre already acting like monkeys. b) Page 196, 11th paragraph Her samfoos hung on her like rags drying on a washboard, she was so flat and ugly. c) Page 198, 4th paragraph Second Brother is cunning like a wolf waiting at night for the careless person. d) Page 202, 5th paragraph Mustnt be like he hare and the tortoise and count my chickens before theyre hatched.

Hyperbole
a) Page 197, 2nd paragraph No wonder poor Fifth

Brother coughed himself to death. b) Page 198, 5th paragraph and Ah Beng pulled her under the table from where they could safely observe Fourth Aunties skeletal feet and listen to her without Mother noticing. c) Page 201, 2nd paragraph The moon and stars would fall into the ocean, and the sky would crack open and leak its venom on the world.

Word Master
1)procession /prsen/
Nouns Meaning-parade,sequence The policed closed the town roads to make place for the

procession as it wound its away through the major thoroughfares.(paraghraph 1,line 7,pages 193) 2)imperturbable /mptbbl/ Adjective Meaning-calm,cold Grand fathers retainers ,employees,tenants,customers,suppliers,government officers he had bribed for business favours,debtors,creditors,hangerson,all walked with him under the imperturbable tropical sun.(paragraph 1,line 13,pages 194.)

3)possession /pzen/ Nouns Meaning-control,ownership Grandfather,who spoke no English,had gone to an Indian lawyer who drew up a brief will leaving all grandfathers possessions equally to his children.(paragraph 2,line 3, pages 194).
4) obviously /bvisli/ Adverb Meaning-clearly,definitely Father was obviously unhappy about the rubber stink which filled every room in our house and about the low class apparance of his yard. (paragraph 1,line 1,pages 195)

5)immediately /mi.di.t.li/
Adverb Meaning-at once,right away

We would like our share immediately.(paragraph 3,line


2,pages 195) 6)beneficiary /benf.r.i/ Nouns Meaning-person who gains,benefit Fifth uncles widow,whom no one had included as a beneficiary.(paragraph 2,line 3, pages 197)

7)murmured /m.mr/
Verb Meaning-make low,continuous sound

I can rent a warehouse to store the rubber Father

murmured ,looking pale and miserable.(paragraph 7,line 2 ,pages 195) 8)miserable /mz.r..bl/ Adjective Meaning-unhappy,depressed I can rent a warehouse to store the rubber Father murmured ,looking pale and miserable.(paragraph 7,line 2 ,pages 195).

9)insisting /nsst/ [I]

Adverb
Meaning-order,expect You were right in insisting on your share(paragraph

6,line 3,pages 195) 10)ravenous /rv.n.s/ Adjective Very hungry;desirous Which monastery will dare to pray for her spirit which is as ravenous as a man-eaters(paragraph 6,line 7,pages 97)

Culture Collector

Chinese Culture a) Chinese people will have the procession to commemorate the deceased. Family of the deceased will provide essential items for the deceased to live on in death. The police closed the town roads to make place for the procession as it wound its way through the major thoroughfares. (page 193, 1st paragraph) b) The Chinese wear straw sandal, and their head cover with strawplaited mats during the funeral. We walked after the hearse in grand fashion, stumbling along in our sandals, our heads covered with strawplaited mats. (page 193, 2nd paragraph)

c) Chinese wear in black or in dark colour during the funeral procession. We wore new clothes the most bitter black. (page 194, 1st paragraph) d) Chinese families play mahjong when have spare time. Whenever the brothers played mahjong together, he was usually the big winner. (page 195, 2nd paragraph)

The End

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