I had a fantastic time at the book discussion because we got to introduce ourselves, talk about our favorite part of the book, and share personal examples as well as opinions. My favorite short story is “War Years” because the boy, who helped his mother with the family’s store, narrated the story that made us understand his mother’s hardships and his mother’s frustration towards Mrs. Hoa. The reason the mother disliked Mrs. Hoa was that Mrs. Hoa asked for donations to support anti-Communism in Vietnam, and she made her intentions clear when she told Mrs. Hoa she is not donating money. Near the end of the story, we learned that Mrs. Hoa started this anti-Communism campaign because her husband and son were missing in action during the Vietnam War. Both the mother and the boy sympathized with Mrs. Hoa as the mother gave Mrs. Hoa the money she earned from work and the boy apologized to Mrs. Hoa. This touched me because it was a reminder that the person’s outside appearance and inside appearance do not match. It also made me realize that misunderstandings arose because there was no honest communication between the mother and Mrs. Hoa. Tamar Kushnir said in the book discussion that the mother felt Mrs. Hoa’s pain, but the mother still did not want to support anti-Communism. I agree with her because the mother gave Mrs. Hoa the money not for the anti-Communism cause but as an indirect apology, knowing that Mrs. Hoa is also suffering.

This story emphasized the hardships of earning money as the boy described his mother standing all day by the cash register. The reason the mother did not support anti-Communism was that she needed to spend her money for the family and for her daughter’s tuition not for an external cause. I did not expect the mother to give the money to Mrs. Hoa, but it showed altruism as she placed another person’s suffering before her own. I think she would feel good for giving the money because she can still earn money for her family. When the mother gave her son a five dollar bill to buy something at 7-Eleven, it touched me how the boy was unable to make a decision. There were so many foods and items to choose from, but he could not make up his mind. One of the Rose Scholars said that he learned the value of a dollar just by observing his mother working. He learned that it took hard work to earn money in a setting that involved customers. Plus, the boy rarely received allowance from his parents, so he did not harbor greed for money.