TITLE: HUNDRED SECRET SENSES

AUTHOR: Amy Tan

PUBLISHER: G. P. Putnum's Sons

CHARACTERS:

Olivia Laguni Olivia is half Chinese-American born. She tries to retain a
western outlook on life until the arrival of her half sister Kwan.
Kwan Li Kwan speaks with a Chinese accent. She was the half sister of Olivia
The mother of Olivia is not a very good mother. She breaks promises to people
Simon - husband of Olivia who continuously compared her to his dead girlfriend
Elsa
Du lili friend of Kwan
Big Ma grandmother of Kwan
Temmy younger brother of Olivia
Lester Olivia and Kwans friend
Ricky driver of Kwan and Olivia
Miss Banner - who has come to China as a translator for a group of American
missionaries at the time of the Taipei rebellion


SUMMARY:

a. INTRODUCTION
Hundred Secret Senses is a novel that revisits familiar territory with the dual
settings of the United States and China, and a protagonist struggling with two disparate
cultures. Olivia Yee Bishop, the California daughter of a Chinese father and an Anglo
mother, is an unhappy woman who has separated from her husband Simon and has
desensitized herself to all feeling except pain. She agrees to travel to China at the
urging of her Chinese half-sister Kwan, even though she suspects rightly that Kwan is
using the journey as an excuse to bring her together with Simon.
The present action is paralleled by Kwans ongoing account of her previous life
as a one-eyed girl in nineteenth century China during the Taiping Rebellion. In addition,
Kwan believes she can see ghosts from the World of Yin with her yin eyes and talk to
them. Olivia treats these stories with good Western skepticism, but shadows from the
past will affect her life in ways she cannot yet understand.
Funny, awkward, incredibly loyal Kwan continues in Tans tradition of plucky
Chinese women, becoming a kind of foster mother, guide and protector to Olivia. She
teaches Olivia to feel, not only with her emotions, but with what Kwan calls the hundred
secret senses. Tans central theme, the search for self, is obvious not only through
Olivia, but also through Simon and many others from Kwans ghostly past life.



b. PLOT
The Hundred Secret Senses follows Chinese-American life. Before Olivia's
Chinese dad dies, he tells his white wife that he has another daughter living in China.
His wife makes three vows to her husband: to never remarry, to uphold the family name,
and to find his daughter Kwan and take care of her. Olivia and her family prepare to
meet Kwan. The mother is expecting Kwan to be skinny and shy and is surprised to find
Kwan chubby and outgoing.
Kwan is much older, almost 18 to Olivia's perhaps 6. They share a bedroom, and
Olivia's mother is happy to let Kwan take care of Olivia while she spends her time with
whomever her boyfriend-of-the-moment happens to be. Kwan speaks English poorly,
but speaks a lot. She also teaches Chinese to Olivia. But Olivia at best only tolerates
Kwan in her life, and often finds her annoying.
As Olivia grows up, Kwan tells stories about ghosts. Olivia tells her mother and
current step father, and Kwan ends up in a psychiatric ward for a while. Olivia is more
discreet after this.
The stories Kwan tells center around a young girl in Changmien name Nunumu,
whose life changes when missionaries and a woman named Miss Banner come to her
village. It becomes clear the Kwan believes she is the reincarnation of Nunumu.
As the story progresses, we also find out about Olivia's eventual marriage to
Simon, who is also a Chinese-American. His former girlfriend has recently passed away
when Olivia meets him, and she haunts their relationship for the next fifteen years. They
live and work together as photographer and writer until the weight of their issues pulls
them apart.
After starting divorce proceedings, they get another job for a travel magazine
about travelling to China. Kwan had been bothering Olivia to make a trip to Changmien
with her, and wanted to go with Simon. However, Simon and Olivia want to reject the
offer. Kwan eventually convinces them to go on a friend basis.
The remainder of the book chronicles their adventures in Changmien, as the
three are drawn deeper and deeper into the ghost stories told by Kwan, and Olivia has
to come to terms with her half-sister's seeming craziness and the distance between her
and her husband.

c. CLIMAX
When Olivia's marriage starts to fall apart, she reluctantly takes a trip to China on
assignment with her estranged husband and Kwan as an interpreter, this is the site of
the previous tragedies, relayed in the ghost stories which Olivia has grown up with. The
old friends of Kwam take them to their hearts, but old auntie is killed. In fact, the three
travellers witnessed the bus crash in which she died, on their way to the village.
Here, Simon becomes lost in the caves, which Kwam/Nunumu had taken him to
for safety from the Manchus, in that earlier life when he was Yiban Saunders, the lover
of Miss Banner. She blames herself for his death, as she was unable to lie enough to
prevent him going back to save Miss Banner. Simon is missing all night and Olivia
realizes she still has strong feelings for him. The following day, Kwam insists on going
alone to search for him in the caves. She never returns. The village is inundated with
police, media, and geologists and becomes manic and spoiled. Locals charge visitors to
go to the caves and sell coins as ancient artifacts. Neither Simon nor Olivia can stand it
and return home, having brought Kwam's husband George and his cousin Virgie over.
Kwam is declared dead.


d. CONCLUSION

Olivia has been childless; it seemed that Simon was infertile. But nine months
after she returns, a baby girl years later, though she and Simon are not together they
share the joy and love of their daughter Samantha. Olivia reflects on what Kwam has
given her and taught her about life. She believes she has been shown the value,
vastness and timelessness of real love, which can encompass many worlds. To believe
in ghosts is to know that love never dies and that those who have died are still with us,
where we can only find them by using the secret senses we keep so well hidden.


REACTION:
Hundred Secret Senses tells about a question about love, unconditional love. I
thought this is a story about sisters and the about the peculiar relationships of families,'
but as I was reading the book, I realized that the kind of love that Kwan was providing
was this unconditional love that felt very comforting to me, and I thought that part of me
is always looking for that. Somebody who seems sort of annoying because they're
intrusive and care about everything that's happening in my life, Im talking about my
parents but who continues to give this ceaselessly and without expectations of anything
in return.












TITLE: MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN

AUTHOR: Jean Craighead George

PUBLISHER: Puffin Books

CHARACTERS:
Sam Gribley is a boy 15 years old who ran away from home to live on the
Catskill Mountains. Sam is adventurous and does not like to be kept inside. He
can make tools out of stuff you can find in the woods. He is also very brave and
courageous for going and staying in the woods alone.
Frightful is Sam's falcon, which Sam climbed desperately on a high ledge, and
managed to get. He trained Frightful to hunt for him, giving him extra time to
finish many other tasks.
Sam's other companions in the woods are J esse Coon J ames, a raccoon;
and Baron Weasel. These animals become his friends, providing protection and
serving as partners for conversation.

SUMMARY:

a. introduction
George Sam Gribley is tired of living in a crowded New York City apartment with
his dad, mom and 8 brothers and sisters, so he runs away looking for his Great-
grandfather Gribleys land in the Catskill Mountain wilderness. The Gribley land had not
been inhabited by any Gribleys for around 100 years. Sam hitched rides trying to get to
the farm. Sam thought he prepared himself for this adventure by reading books in the
New York City public library about how to survive on the land. No one in his family took
his plans seriously though. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some
flint and steel, he relied on his own ingenuity and the resources of the land to survive.

b. Plot
Sam arrived in the Catskills and went to the Delhi library to find information
about Gribleys farm. A nice librarian found information that was very old, this helped
Sam find the farm. This was the beginning of Sams great adventure. On his great-
grandfathers farm he learns how to survive. At first he struggles to make a fire, then he
had trouble whittling wooden fishing hooks to catch fish, but he ended up perfecting the
hooks and catching a few fish. He quickly realizes that he needs shelter; just building
and staying around a campfire wont do, so he decides to set a fire inside a hemlock
tree and hollow himself out a room. Here he builds himself a little hidden home in the
forest. His tree home consists of a hidden door made of deerskin, a bed and a fireplace
to keep him warm in winter. People come to the forest and are all around him, but they
never discover him in his tree home. He struggled every day to find food, only to find
that frog legs and turtle soup arent bad food. He also ate wild onions, acorns, apples,
wild strawberries, and sometimes rabbit that he manages to catch in some traps he had
built. He finally spots a falcon and decides to catch one of its babies in the hopes that
he can train the falcon. The falcon can then help him catch food. The falcon he caught
he name Frightful, because it was very frightening when the falcons mother tried to
attack him, to keep him from getting her baby. Sam spent many days training the falcon.
After Frightful became trained she was able to catch many small animals and provide
them with food. Sam also struggles with providing himself with clothing. Fortunately for
him, a hunter killed a deer in the woods and Sam got to it first and hid it. Later Sam
came back for it and eventually made himself a pair of pants from its hide along with
eating its meat. This happened a couple of other times so that Sam was able to also
make himself a shirt and a blanket from deerskin.

c. Climax
All the while, no one realized that Sam lived in the forest. Sam eventually makes
a friend he calls Bando, who turns out to be an English professor who had gone
exploring in the woods. Bando stays with Sam for the summer and told him he would
return at Christmas time. Sam really struggled during the winter, he prepared by storing
nuts in another tree close by and then by cutting plenty of firewood. And survive he
does with only the animals to talk to and Frightful for companionship. Around Christmas
time, his friend Bando returns. This time Bando told him that there had been stories
circulating in New York City about a wild boy living alone in the forest, but no one could
prove it. The stories became huge rumors, newspapermen were poking around the
woods trying to find the wild boy. Sams father realized from the newspaper that it must
be Sam they were talking about, so he decided to look for Sam. He finally found Sam
and ended up spending Christmas in the forest with Sam, Bando, and Frightful. After
Sams dad left to return to New York City, a newspaperman named Matt Spelling came
poking around the forest looking for the wild boy. Matt was a smart guy and stumbled
upon Sam, it didnt take him long to figure out that Sam was the wild boy the newspaper
was referring to. Sam decided to give Matt an account of his survival in the forest for his
newspaper article, this cleared up all the rumors of the wild boy theory.

d. Conclusion
Not long afterwards, Sams dad, his mom, and his brothers and sisters came to
the Gribleys land to live with Sam. Sams mom like it so well, that she and Sams dad
quickly made plans to build a house for the whole family. Needless to say, they were
very proud of Sam for finding great-grandfather Gribleys farm, for surviving in the forest
on his own, and for bringing them all out of the city.

REACTION:
I really enjoyed the book. Its full of excitement and adventure. I think that the
book is indeed is a very good book because it is gives a lot of information about the
wilderness and has a terrific ending to it.
The moral of the story is if you have a dream follow it and to never give up
because a lot of good can come out of it. Sam goes from a boy who doesnt believe in
himself to a boy who depends on himself. If you try hard enough at something it will
work out.