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Saving Sourdi Outline

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May-Lee Chai’s “Saving Sourdi,” 181-94

Background / Back-Story Places and events alluded to (you may wish to look up the following terms): Cambodia (183-84) Angkor Wat (194) the Naga (194) Phnom Penh Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge—1975-1979 Choeung Ek “the Killing Fields”

Consider numerous references throughout the story to bones, fields, barbed wire Consider the images in Nea’s two dreams: 186, 191

Plot Sequence: The scenes are mostly chronological with a peripheral flashback to the scene when Nea was 4 and Sourdi was 9, and Sourdi “saved” Nea “in another world, a place almost unimaginable to me. . . . ” (191)

Ages of Nea and Sourdi (Sourdi is 4½ to 5 years older than Nea)—

1. Opening scene when Nea stabs one of the drunks: Nea is 11 (181), Sourdi would be 15½ to 16. 2. Sourdi’s marriage to Mr. Chhay: Sourdi is 18 (187), Nea is 12½ 3. Scene nearly two years after the wedding when Nea and Duke drive to Des Moines, Iowa, to “save” Sourdi. Nea says she is 14½ (187). Nea says Sourdi is 20.

Setting: What about the neighborhood where they live in South Dakota? They wanted to find “the real America, the one where we were supposed to live” (182).

Cambodia to Texas to South Dakota.

Each scene has its own particular setting and mood.

Consider the importance of the setting of the field Duke wants to show the two girls (184- 85. Consider the description of Sourdi’s house and yard on Locust Street in DesMoines (191 & 192). Consider the inside of the house.

Literary Symbols: Are there any particular objects or places that have special identification with, meaning or connection to Nea, Sourdi, their mother, Duke, Mr. Chhay? What about the restaurant being named the Silver Palace? Study Nea’s two dreams.

Narrator’s Point of View: Nea—First-Person Participant. Nea is also innocent,

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...Nea the Antagonist South Plains College April 20, 2015 Research Paper In May-Lee Chai’s “Saving Sourdi,” Nea would be the antagonist of the story if the literary development of point of view and characterization were different. Point of view and characterization in literature is what allows us to see, hear, and feel a story the way it is designed. An author’s attention to detail is crucial. He or she may put more focus into every small element in a setting or they may emphasize more on development of plot or character. Every literary piece is different. Point of view is an essential tool in arranging the world in a story that sets itself apart. Development of character can only begin after we know from where the story is coming. Chai writes “Saving Sourdi” in a first person point of view through a naïve character. We are “restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of [this] single character” (Meyer 138). For the rest of my analysis it is important to remember this. The narrator tells a story of the two main characters and the relationship between them. The actions of our immature main character throughout the time of this story takes place continue to fail her, creating contrast between the two of them. The reader can tell this is happening, but because the story comes to us from this first person narrative, we also know that Nea truly believes she is doing the right thing. We can always know too much or too little of what we are supposed...

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