Wei-Lei and Me (Aditi Gouvernel)

1. 1.  What word in the opening sentence means ‘short and flat’?
2. 2.  What is so ‘Australian’ about Barry West?
3. 3.  What is the opening interaction between the two characters about?
4. 4.  What is the protagonist’s home country?
5. 5.  What word means “noble and splendid”? (p75)
6. 6.  In what way is the protagonist’s home country “aristocratic”?
7. 7.  Where did the protagonist’s father move his family to? Why?
8. 8.  What is the protagonist’s attitude towards the citizenship ceremony? (pp75-6)
9. 9.  How is Barry West the antagonist?
10. 10.What is the irony of the comments made by Amy and Cris? (p76)
11. 11.What is “you have to face the world” a metaphor for? (p76)
12. 12.What is the teacher’s hair compared to? Is this an example of a metaphor or simile? (p77)
13. 13.How is the children’s cruel creativity put into action once Wei-Lei arrives? (p77)
14. 14. Explain the relevance of the ‘cat and toy’ metaphor. (p77)
15. 15.How does the children’s cruel creativity have a more sinister side?
16. 16.What does the protagonist mean by “the afternoon passed like a death sentence”? (p78)
17. 17.Why does the protagonist see everything Indian “lit by a spotlight”? (p78)
18. 18.How does the story build to a climax? (p79)
19. 19.What is the irony of Barry’s fate? (p80)
20. 20.Explain what the protagonist means by “as our faces changed, so did Canberra” (p81).
21. 21.What do you think the protagonists’ definition of being Australian would be? (p81)