Reading the Biography

Book : "Where the Body Meets Memory" by David Mura

Questions:

1. The internment camps were a very painful experience for Japanese Americans.

They were also a very important and awkward chapter in American history. David Mura gave the sub-title "Silences" to the Prologue. Why did he use the plural from -s to talk about "silences?" How many kinds of silences was he referring to?

Who were the groups that were silent? And why? Discuss these issues in detail, with reference to the Prologue and other supplementary handouts.

2. Mura argued that decades after the internment camps were over, even in the 1990s, American society is still filled with racist stereotypes about Asian American and interracial marriage. Find two examples from the Prologue chapter to illustrate this point.

3. Names are important parts of a family's heritage.

a. "Uyemura was our family name until I was seven, when my father shortened it." (Chapter 2, p.55)

b. David Mura's siblings are named Susan, John and Linda.

c. "When Samantha was born, Susie had wanted to give her a Japanese middle name. I protested ... [Later] we named [our second child] Nikko David Sencer-Mura" (Prologue, p.7)

Discuss the reasons why these are serious matters to David Mura and his father. In what ways were Mura's and his father's thinking similar and/or different?

4. When David Mura was growing up, he tried very hard to reject his Japanese heritage. Find examples in Chapter 2 "All American Boy," and the supplementary handouts, to describe how he looked at himself as if he were a white kid. Also discuss the irony of his choices.

5. On page 62 to 66, David Mura talked about an incident when he was in fifth grade. A bully called Mike Wrangel was trying to beat up another boy called David Nakayama. Read this part carefully and explain the reasons that David Mura is sharing this story with his readers. How did this incident show David Mura's conflicting identities?

6. INFERENCE AND ANALYSIS QUESTION - Mura is particularly interested in using italics and different font types to represent different people's points of view.

There are multiple examples in the first three chapters we have read. Discuss why this technique can be very powerful in the writing of an autobiography.

You don't need to summarize the long examples. Focus on understanding why Mura uses this technique and how we, as readers, are drawn into his narrative.