Chapter Five - All Too Real

Out of all of the chapters I have read so far this was the chapter that bored me the most. I really enjoyed the first 4 chapters, but this one seemed to drag on a bit. For about the first ten pages Kiam-Kim and his father walked around Chinatown to politely ask residents to donate some change in order to purchase food and blankets for the Chinese soldiers and starving children in China. The next 16 pages consisted of Kiam and his confusion of Hell vs. Heaven.

I've realized that Kiam thinks too much. If he doesn't fully understand something he usually dwells on it until he finds the answers he needs to satisfy him. For example, Jenny told him that her last teacher told her she was going to end up in Hell. He was confused on the topic and began to talk to others about it and looked it up in books. It made him feel that Hell seemed all too real. That only made him become more wary and concerned.

After Kiam-Kim kept thinking about Hell, Father thought it was best for him to learn about Heaven, too. He hought it would be a good idea to visit the church nearby. I was confused that Kiam was allowed to attend Sunday school classes in the church because Poh-Poh is strongly attached and committed to the Old China religion, so when she didn't make too much of an issue out of this, I was surprised. Choy tends to use street names while referring to places. I try to note them and search them up later. This time I searched what was exactly in the text, "Good Mission Church on Keefer Street".  I found this photo and did some quite research to assure it was in Chinatown and on Keefer Street. I even found out it was built in the early 1900's. 

It was neat to connect a real life image to what I read in the book. Choy does this a lot and I'll definitely try to look some places up and find a realistic match in the future.

I admire Kiam's diligence; most kids his age usually get frustrated and give up if they don't understand something. I have a feeling that is why the chapter focused so much on Hell and religion; it took him 16 pages, but he finally felt like he understood what he didn't know before. He told his father he didn't need to go to Sunday school anymore: when he looked at things he saw Heaven instead of Hell. I am silently hoping that there isn't this many references to religion in future chapters.  The topic doesn't interest me as much as other things Choy has written about so far. I'll soon find out...