What We All Long For

Who or what is Quy? Do you believe he is actually the lost son of Cam and Tuan? Why or why not? Provide direct evidence from the text. 

The novel plays with perspective, often using multiple perspectives in one chapter. Choose one chapter and explicate it, paying careful attention to the shifting perspective and explaining how this shift contributes to (or complicates) meaning in the novel. 

Likewise, the novel employs frequent flashbacks as a method of developing backstory. Choose one backstory and consider how, through a frequent return to the flashbacks, the story becomes more complex and complete as the novel progresses. 

There are several sets of character foils in the novel. Choose one set of character foils and discuss how the characters’ oppositions help to develop meaning in the text. 

What is the role of the city in the novel? In what ways does it contribute to the development of the characters? In what ways does it add meaning in the text? How, if at all, might the city be considered to be another main character?

What is the role of money in the novel? Does the novel ultimately argue for money as a method of freedom? Does it reject it as a tool of oppression? Somewhere in between?

What is the role of love in the novel? Choose one of the relationships depicted in the novel and use it as a basis to define what it means to love or be loved. (Note that this is not limited to romantic love.)

What claims does the novel make about the immigrant experience or the non-white experience in Canadian society?