View a FREE sample

1. In what time and place does the opening scene of The Best We Could Do begin?

When the memoir begins, Thi is describing the experience of having her child. She is at the Methodist Hospital in New York and it is November of 2005.

2. What behavior of Ma's disappoints Thi in the memoir's opening scene?

Ma feels unable to stay in the room with Thi while Thi is in labor. Thi is disappointed by this development, since Ma had flown "all the way from California" to help Thi with the delivery of Thi's child.

3. Thi likens the way she feels at the sight of the surgical instruments to what scene from her childhood?

Thi explains to the reader of the memoir that when she saw the tray of surgical instruments being wheeled in, she felt her "stomach go black the way it had when [she] was a child" and her father Bo had talked in graphic detail about a rape while a very young Thi was still in the room.

(read all 60 Short Essay Questions and Answers)

This section contains 4,145 words (approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample