Title: The Latehomecomer Assessment
Course: Using The Latehomecomer to Study Hmong Human Rights

Below is the final quiz for The Latehomecomer. It is worth 100 points. Answer all the questions to the best of your ability.

Begin by scrolling to the bottom of the test and click on "edit my submission."

Final Assessment on The Latehomecomer

by

Kao Kalia Yang

Short Answer questions-(2 points each)

You must answer all the questions in complete sentences. I am expecting 1-2 sentences for each question.

1. Why do you think the author chose The Latehomecomer as the title of her book?
2. If someone asked you what the “Hmong experience” is/was what would tell them?
3. Why couldn’t Kao Kalia’s family stay in Thailand?
4. Why did the United States invite the Hmong people to live here?
5. In the Hmong tradition, babies come from where?
6. Why did Kao Kalia’s grandmother marry a man 25 years older then her?
7. What disability does Dawb have?
8. How do the author’s parents meet?
9. Why does her grandmother have such a difficult time adjusting to life in America?
10. Why does Kao Kalia choose Hamline University and not the University of Minnesota to go to college?

True or False questions-(2 points each)

If the answer is false, correct the question.

1. The home country for the Hmong people is Vietnam. T F

2. Kao Kalia is the oldest daughter in her family. T F

3. Kao Kalia attended both Hamline University and Columbia. T F

4. Kao Kalia and Dawb spoke perfect English when they arrived in the United States. T F

5. The first place they landed after leaving Thailand was Japan. T F

6. Kao Kalia’s family lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. T F

7. Kao Kalia’s family lived in a house haunted by a little girl who died when she fell down the stairs. T F

8. The first house Yang’s family lived in was a duplex in North Minneapolis. T F

9. Kao Kalia’s family could stay on welfare as long as they wanted. T F

10. Kao Kalia’s grandmother (her dad’s mother) died on February 18th, 2002, in Brooklyn Center, MN. T F

Essay Questions-(15 points each)

You must answer three out of the four essays. I am expecting two-three paragraphs for each essay.

Yang’s grandmother stands as a bastion of strength and honor as she continually encourages her family to survive and do their best with what they have been given. She tells her worried family while they consider the daunting task of becoming Americans, “Lasting change cannot be forced; only inspired.” What do you think her grandmother means by this statement?

Among the many universal themes Yang’s story touches upon is love: “Love,” she writes, “is the reason why my mother and father stick together in a hard life when they might have an easier one apart; love is the reason why you choose a life with someone, and you don’t turn back although your heart cries sometimes…and you wish out loud that things were easier.” What does this mean to you?

Yang hopes that her book can resonate with American readers as a story that matters because it touches upon human universals. She hopes all Americans can come to know that what has happened to the Hmong in the world is relevant to our own individual experiences—so that we remember who we are as Americans, so that we are empowered to live the life set before us, and so that we are empowered to tell our own stories as well. Write about your story and what it would include. For example, how has your family (ancestors) learned to survive here in the United States? What do you value and why?

Kao Kalia Yang’s book The Latehomecomer traces the story of her family starting in the late 1970s, when her recently-wed mother and father were separated by the encroachment of North Vietnamese soldiers and then fled for their lives through jungles, over mountains, and across raging rivers to Thailand. Yang was born in 1980 in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp and spent the first seven years of her life there before her father and uncles convinced their aging mother that they would all be better off in the U.S. Once in the United States, however, the family’s odyssey had only just begun. Give several different examples of how she and her family struggled in their quest to be Americans.

Extra Credit-At least one paragraph (5-7 sentences) for each question

Would you recommend this book to others? Why or why not? (5 points)

What did you learn from the book? (5 points)