Preview

The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do, Expository texts

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
771 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do, Expository texts
THE HAPPIEST REFUGEE

Expository texts, by definition, analyse and explain information to enlighten or educate its readers. This type of text often provides readers with deeper insights about a subject. In The Happiest Refugee written by Anh Do, his experiences are used to show the struggles to live a new life in a foreign country. With the conventions such as first-person perspective, colloquial language and anecdotal evidence, Do 's expository text positions readers to be inspired and amused. At the same time, Do 's use of the conventions effectively allows the text to be influential in our attitude towards our lives and thus, make the world a better place.

Writing in first-person narrative allows Do to engage with his readers, which makes it easier for him to be persuasive and to therefore make a difference. It gives the text its warmth and intimacy and makes readers feel a personal connection with Do. In the book, Anh Do talks about his near-death experience that happened at the mere age of two, "Bang! Bang! The patrol boat began shooting at us, and the women on our boat screamed." The use of onomatopoeia in this quote paints a picture in the mind of the readers and lets them experience the fear of bullets whistling past their heads, clanging in to the side of the only thing that could get them to a better life. Sharing this experience, with the use of first-person point of view, positions readers to be grateful of their lives, especially if they didn 't have to be in the same situation. Do also accentuates the fact that we have to appreciate and recognise the lives that we have to make the world a better place.

The Happiest Refugee is a text written in an informal and colloquial language, which enables Anh Do to openly share his life to his readers. This conveys a strong sense of his voice and is as if he is conversing with a friend. Readers feel privileged to share his ideas and emotions, especially when he writes about moments of fear in his life



Bibliography: _ANH_ DO, THE HAPPIEST REFUGEE LIB.OUP.COM.AU/SECONDARY/ENGLISH/OXFORD_ENGLISH/3/OXFORD_ELU_YRS9_10_HAPPIEST_REFUGEE_SAMPLE.PDF WWW.PSNEWS.COM.AU/APS/BOOKREVIEWPSN2662.HTML

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thanhha Lai’s novel, Inside Out and Back Again, is an example of a young refugee, Ha, who’s country suffered a war, forcing its citizens to flee. Like many other men, women, and children around the world, Ha left her home to escape the grip of the war, and the challenges that would be faced there, ultimately becoming a refugee. While leaving her homeland and moving overseas to America, she faced challenges that many other refugees suffer, and had to work her way through them. Thanhha Lai’s novel showed how Ha’s life, like the lives of other refugees, turned inside out.…

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The “Happiest Refugee” is the official autobiography of the Australian comedian Anh Do. The book is based around his life story starting in Vietnam and then becoming a fascinating story about his triumphs and darkest hours. Anh and his family went through many challenges as depicted in his text and these included the struggles Ahn faced at St Aloysius School, thereby depicting his social context. Ahn Do's journey over to Australia was also conveyed through the use of descriptive and emotive language and depicted his social and historical context. Another struggle was how survived by using some strong survival instincts, Ahn conveys this through the use of descriptive, characterisation by the use of thought and dialogue and the use of emotive…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “On their third meeting he buys her a lemonade and makes a young guy in the carriage stand up so that she can sit down.” (Father’s actions) pg.3…

    • 2286 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout their journey they have faced some obstacles and barriers, which are manifested in the text through the use of language techniques. An example is evident in the quote “My parents have learnt that language barriers can be insurmountable as giant waves”. The use of simile highlights Hai-Van’s parent’s struggle to communicate with others due to their language disparity. This wasn’t as bad as it seems because it gives them a chance to open up a new learning experience which helps to benefit them throughout their journey, making a lot of it much less difficult. The repetition of “you” and use of inclusive language is very evident though out the text and that is because invite readers to experience the journey to give them a better insight and understanding of physical journeys. In the very last line, the author encourages the readers that, “we should listen to their words, hear their voices and document their stories”, Inclusive language is used to evoke a sense of community between the migrants, author and reader. From this text it is revealed that the author is tryinwg to cajole other people into being more thoughtful and that physical journey’s may have positive influences on other people as well as the…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever visited a different country and felt like a complete alien? Well, how would you feel if you were to move there, forever? The novel, Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate is the story of how a young refugee from war-torn Sudan learns to adjust to a new life in America with the help of friends and family. Katherine Applegate’s use of figurative language, first person point of view, and free verse poetry is the most effective way to reveal the story of a refugee adapting to life in America.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nt1310 Unit 1 Assignment

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Writing/Expository (and Procedural) Texts. Students write expository (and procedural or work-related) texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. Students are expected to…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Migrants by Bruce Dawe

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The poem ‘Migrants by ‘Bruce Dawe ’should be included for the core text for journeying as it portrays journeying through the perceptions and experiences of a migrant group. This poem depicts feelings of ignorance and disrespectfulness encountered by the migrant group as they are treated with a lack of concern by people living in Australia.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do is about a young family in Vietnam who risk their lives to travel illegally to Australia. In the middle of the ocean with the sun beating down on a jam packed boat, with water supplies already running low, more trouble arrives, a pirate ship. With all their goods taken, hope for survival is at their lowest. Just as everything seems lost, a German ship arrives. The family reaches Australia safely and kindness surounds them. Anh lives with his mum, dad, brother Khoa and sister Tram in a suburb in Sydney. He is now famous as a comedian and is happily married with 3 children. There are many good examples of positive character traits shown through Anh Do’s Life. Some of these include the kindness from Anh’s mother, bravery from Anh’s father, forgiveness from Anh and generosity from two nuns from St Vincent de Paul.…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Migrants by Bruce Dawe

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Bruce Dawe's poem, Migrants, portrays a long quest from the perception of a migrant group. The particular group is acknowledged as “they” as they were met with indifferences from the locals. “They” reacted to this treatment with surprise and confusion which is made evident in the line, “indifference surprised them..” which creates a sense of ambiguity and lack of identity. This mystified poem depicts feelings of ignorance as well as disinterest as “they” are treated with a lack of concern.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Happiest Refugee and ‘We are Going’ share common themes of displacement and being forced to adapt to a new way of life. However, ‘We are Going’ presents the experience of indigenous Australians who have been forced to adapt to a new way of life and are unwelcome in their own land, while The Happiest Refugee presents a family who have been forced to flee their homeland of Vietnam and must adapt to their new life in Australia and the ways of its people. The Happiest Refugee presents a positive view of a family who are incredibly grateful for all Australia has given them, with Anh’s parents insisting that he ‘do all he can’ to give back to the country that has given them a ‘second chance.’ This is in stark contrast with the disrespect shown…

    • 192 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Story of Tom Brennan

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The beauty of literature is its ability to teach the reader valuable lessons about the world. These lessons are relevant to life, because the themes in many books are based on reality. Although narratives are fictitious, they have been shaped using views from real life, allowing the composer to communicate important and relevant messages. Readers will respond to stories in many different ways, but through an engaging text, they will learn valuable lessons to put into practice in reality. Well-written narratives challenge their readers to reconsider society's views and their own perspectives on particular issues. The audience is positioned to understand how much a personal opinion can be based on society's views. The novel "The Story of Tom Brennan" uses the profound story of the Brennan family to encourage her teenage audience to think critically about the consequences of drink driving and rash decisions. It also offers an insight into the grieving process, demonstrating ways of dealing with adversity and emphasising that accepting support is the best way to recover from grief. Because the novel is written in such an authentic way, the audience is positioned to understand the ideas portrayed in it and how they relate to their own lives.…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Compare/Contrast Writers

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages

    There are four main modes of discourse: expository, narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, it is apparent in the title that it is a narrative. Like Mrs. Rowlandson’s literature, Olaudah Equiano’s From Africa to America is a narrative. A narrative form of literature is a story, account of events, or experiences, whether it is true or fictitious. In this case their stories were their real experiences and they gave the reader actual facts and information, also making it expository. “The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.” (73) This is a perfect example showing that Olaudah Equiano’s narrative is also descriptive, giving the reader vivid images in his mind, whereas Rowlandson’s narrative rarely has descriptive content. These works of literature may also be portrayed as persuasive by the quote of, “..Overwhelmed with the thoughts of my condition..” (7) Mary Rowlandson was overwhelmed with her emotions. This quote may persuade the reader to think of how melancholy, or how difficult it is to be on a slave ship, and also being held captive by Indians. Both narratives are similar in the experiences the two authors possessed.…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Refugee Monologue

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When I came to Australia I had to leave behind my mother and two brothers, they are still in the refugee camp in Chad, neighbouring Sudan, where I spent 14 months before my papers were finalized to come to Australia. My family and I had been forced into the refugee camp in February 2004 when my father was killed by pro-government Arab militia, called the Janjaweed, who were carrying out massacres against black Muslims in my home of Darfur in western Sudan. They called these killings “ethnic cleansings”. We, at least, were lucky enough to escape to a refugee camp in bordering Chad. Conditions in the camps were terrible. Far from being safe in the camps, I watched as people around me died of fevers, wound infection, starvation and malaria. There…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Life of Refugees

    • 767 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Refugees all over the world face obstacles in their lives. Refugees lives change when they are forced to flee their homes. Their active character portrays itself in situations like these. Becoming a refugee can affect people emotionally and physically. For example, Ha’ from the novel “Inside Out & Back Again”, her and her family were forced to flee their home, when this occurred Ha’ was childish and immature, just like any other ten year old would be.In the novel Ha’ says “An old angry knot expanded in my throat” (Lai 2). Ha’s anger is shown in childish things like rising before her brother to bless the house by tapping her big toe on the wooden floor first. Ha’s immaturity endangers her and her family's well being. Since Ha’ and her family became refugees shes became mature. It was difficult for Ha’ and her family to adapt to the changes so rapidly.…

    • 767 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social work with refugees is incredibly important in contemporary Canadian society, and this issue is deeply rooted in Canadian history. Therefore, the topic of this paper is the relationship between social work and refugees, and how this relationship is impacted by Canadian history, policies, and contemporary social structures. This paper will outline Canada’s history with refugees, and how policy has impacted social work with refugees in past and current Canadian society…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays