Birthday By: David Wong Louie

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BirthdayBy David Wong Louie

• Presented by Brian Jones and Erik Boone

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Summary

• This story takes place in America, but is about
  an oriental family. Stepfather promises his
  former stepson to take him to a baseball game on
  his birthday. The only problem is that the real
  dad doesnt want the stepfather to see his son.
  The mother has left both men in the story. The
  father tries very hard to keep the stepfather
  from seeing his son. The father has let the boy
  stay with a friend to keep him away from the
  stepfather.

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Summary (continued)

• The stepfather runs into the boys room in the
  fathers house and locks himself in there
  thinking that the boy is in there. The father
  pleads with him to come out but he resents him.
  The father then goes outside and leaves with his
  lady friend. Then man looks around and observes
  the room and decides to draw the boy a picture to
  let the boy know that he was there. Then he goes
  downstairs to leave but goes to the kitchen to
  finish the cake that the real father had started.

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Theme

• We believe that the theme of the story is how the
  real father is so jealous of the stepfather.
• Another theme is what the effects on a family due
  to divorce.

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Symbols

• Birthday cake- The fathers regrets for not
  having a good relationship with his son.
• The modern toys- represents how much the real
  father truly knows his son.
• The drawing- represents the love the stepfather
  has for the boy and shows how much he understands
  the boy.
• The Lady Friend- she represents how the real
  father wants to change the way of the boys life
  to a more ordinary lifestyle without the
  stepfather.
• The Baseball game- shows how much the stepfather
  cares for the boy even though they are not blood
  related.

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Allusions

• When Jesus was born he was born to Joseph and
  Marie. Although Jesus was not of Josephs blood,
  he treated him with care and love as if he was
  his own. This refers to how the stepfather
  treated Wilby in the story. He treated him with
  all the love and care that a real father would
  treat a son with.

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Character Analysis

• Stepfather- loving and caring to the boy even
  though hes not his own.
• Welby- not really described but assumed that he
  misses the stepfather greatly.
• Father- Not interested in the boys interests but
  cares about his own and what he wants for the
  boy.
• Lady friend-wealthy looking, stubborn, and stuck
  up

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Significance of the title

• Shows that stepfather misses the boy and wants to
  replace the hurt with a good birthday for the
  boy.
• Shows the father wanting to make up for lost time
  with the boy.
• The boys birthday! DUH!

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Narration

• The stepfather is the narrator and he tells the
  story through a first person point of view.
• The tone is resentful, sad, and angry.
• The narrator seems reliable but we dont really
  see the other characters points of view.

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Character Transformation

• The stepfathers character transform greatly at
  the end of the story when he decides to help the
  real father out instead letting him seem like a
  bad father when he couldnt finish the birthday
  cake.

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Authors Goal

• The authors goal in this story is to show how
  complicated relationships affect the people that
  are in those relationships.

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Our View

• We view the story as being very awkward. There
  are many different situations in this story that
  you would not encounter in the ordinary family.
  We also like how the stepfather transforms from
  and caring parental to the boy to a caring person
  to everyone (the real father). The only thing we
  disliked about the story is that we didnt really
  like the ending.