KINDNESS + DETERMINATION + FAMILY LOVE
Question
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Events/Evidence
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Reasons
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To get an A
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Themes
Kindness
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Moral Value/Lesson: We should be
kind to others/to our family members
Dawan is a kind sister. She understands her brother and she is always kind to him, even
though her brother turns into a bully
after she wins the scholarship. After the fight at the market, she is
worried about her brother sitting on the bridge in the rain. She thinks that
her brother could catch a cold. She then kindly gives her only umbrella to her brother and she is
willing to walk in the rain bareheaded for the sake of her brother. Besides, Dawan is also a kind friend to
Bao and Dawan does not discriminate Bao and she shares her problems with her.
On the other hand, Bao is also a kind
friend to Dawan and she offers Dawan a shoulder to cry on when Dawan
is feeling down meeting the hypocrite head monk. She then kindly lets Dawan free a bird
for free of charge to make her feel better. Bao says that just like the bird,
Dawan has to fly while her gate still opens.
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Dawan has a good reason to hate her
brother Kwai but she chooses not to
hurt her brother’s feelings. This is because she totally understands what
her brother is going through. As a caring
and kind sister, she decides to clear the air by giving his
brother a symbol of love (an
umbrella) - Thanks to Bao.
Bao is a girl and she wants to study
just like Dawan. However, Bao does not have a brother like Kwai. So, she can see her dreams in Dawan’s victory in
the test and she tries her best to help and motivate Dawan to not to
give up.
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If I were in Dawan’s place/shoes, I
would………………...
If I were Dawan, I would ………..
Dawan wins my heart when she selflessly gives the umbrella to Kwai. I want to be like
Dawan.
This event makes me happy / This
event touches my heart. I have a brother too….Blood is thicker than water.
A friend in need is a friend indeed- Everybody needs a friend and Dawan is no exception. She needs
moral support from Bao to pursue her dreams.
At the same time, Bao wants Dawan to change the old-fashioned thinking
of the villagers and she wants Dawan to be the trailblazer to break
the tradition. Bao does not want Dawan to
be a victim of gender inequality/discrimination just like her.
If I were Dawan/ Bao, I would …………
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Determination/ Bravery/ Perseverance
Determination-She is determined
Bravery/Courageous-
She is brave/ She is courageous
Perseverance- She perseveres to
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Moral Value:
1. We need to be brave in achieving
our dreams.
2. We need to be determined to
achieve our life goals.
3. We need to persevere to chase our
dreams
Dawan is brave/determined in getting an approval/ a green light from her father for her to go
to city school. To help convince her father, she bravely/ without giving up meets several people in the
village.
She first meets Noi and Ghan to get
their help to change her father’s mind. To her surprise, Noi refuses to help
Dawan and she thinks the city is
ugly and cruel to a young girl like Dawan. She further says in the
city it is not safe for Dawan and mostly in the city young girls like Dawan
turns into prostitutes or call
girls. After hearing those things, Dawan perseveres/ is determined/ is brave to see those things for
herself in city.
We can clearly see Dawan’s
determination/bravery/perseverance when she talks back to her father.
Her father wants to meet both Kwai and Dawan after he knows that Kwai comes
in second in the test and he is furious/angry
at Kwai for not telling him. The father wants to “brainwash” Dawan and Kwai so that Dawan could step aside to let Kwai go in
her place.(because Dawan just a girl). Kwai stands by his sister’s side and
tells his father that he could not go because that is her sister’s right. Suddenly,
Dawan bravely speaks for herself
and begs her father to trust her abilities and support her just like
how he supports Kwai. Dawan’s words touch
her father’s heart and he then tells her “then try my daughter”
Dawan then (after meeting Noi and
Ghan) bravely/ Dawan perseveres and
meets the head monk to get his help to convince his father. This is
because the head monk is the respected person in the village and everyone thinks highly of him. Dawan
thinks that the head monk could be neutral
/unbiased/ non-judgemental who can
support her because monks are usually not biased. She even goes to the
marketplace to get a lotus bud to impress the head monk. However, to her
disappointment, the head is as
biased as other villagers. He asks her that “what could a mere schoolgirl” like Dawan
learn in the city. He is clearly biased
towards Kwai and he washes
his hands (cuci tangan) of
helping her to convince her father. Dawan is livid and she thinks that the head monk is a hypocrite.
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I like Dawan because she is adamant/ determined/ brave
because she is not influenced by the things that Noi says to her. When she sets her heart on studying
in the city, by hook or by crook, she wants to go to city. I admire
this quality. This makes her as my favourite character in the novel. Fortune favours the bold
In Thai culture, it is a taboo (haram) for daughters to talk back to their fathers. In every Thai
household, father is the leader of the family and the members of the family
should listen to him. As such, Dawan
bravely talks back to her father because she wants to defend her
right and she knows she is correct. Dawan’s father, like other people in the
village, thinks it is stupid and
wasteful to send daughters to school because they will finally end up
in the kitchen- they are not useful to support the poor family. However, with
her own efforts and words, Dawan manages to
win her father’s trust.
We should applaud/praise Kwai’s action for being a pillar of strength/ a hero to
her sister. He finally understands her sister’s feelings and he decides to
stand by his sister’s side. He even “blackmails” his father by
saying that if neither of them gets to go to city, Tackhit would go.
Dawan bravely goes to the temple with much confidence to get a helping hand from the
monk. However, it turns out that the head monk is as same as the old-fashioned thinking people
in the village. Dawan is hopeless
and heartbroken/distressed because the head monk refuses to help her.
I think the head monk should have
(patut) been more sensible and reasonable. As the head monk, he should have not judged Dawan on her
abilities as a girl. Instead, he should have praised her for coming
in first in the test and encouraged
her to thrive in her life. He could have done that by talking to her father
to let Dawan go to city. I think
that is the real quality of a good head monk. In this novel, I feel
like the head monk fails to do the right thing.
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I support Dawan because she is clear
about what she wants to do in her life. She knows that her only chance to
free herself from the brutal system in her life is the scholarship and she
does not want to waste the chance. She proves that where there is a will, there’s a way.
Thanks to father and Kwai for finally
removing the obstacles/hurdles for Dawan to go to city school.
They (men) smoothens the path for
Dawan and other girls in village to study in the city.
I am lucky because I have ……………….
I shed tears of joy when I was
reading the novel .
I feel
sad for Dawan/ I feel sorry
for
I felt
pity/sympathy for Dawan because no one is helping her to achieve her
dream.
The action of the head monk makes me
angry.
As a girl, I totally understands
Dawan’s feelings. There are many capable world-class women personalities like
Princess Diana, Theresa May, Datuk
Siti Nurhaliza and Datuk Nicol Ann David. These women have proven to
the male-dominated world
that women could lead, solve and end a crisis-they could do more than just cooking.
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If you were given a chance to change a
part of a novel you have studied, which part would you change and give
reasons.
How to answer:
State the part/scene that you want to
change. Explain the ORIGINAL scene
If I were given a chance to change a
part of a novel, I would change the
scene where Dawan goes to meet the monk. Tell a bit about the
original scene. What happens in the original scene.
Now explain what you want to change.
I want to change the head monk into a
more reasonable person. Explain what happens if the monk becomes more
reasonable.
State 2/3 reasons why you want to change
the scene
I change the scene because
……………………………………………………….
Conclude the answer.
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