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Author:
Ms. Sherry Garland has written several books, e.g. Song of the Buffalo Boy, The
Silent Storm and Lotus Seed.
The Shadow of the Dragon has been written in 1993. Ms. Garland lives now in
Houston, Texas.
Main Characters:
Danny Vo: is also called Anh-Hai or Duong by his family. Anh-Hai means second son. That is the traditional name for the first born son in a Vietnamese family.(lt is to deceive bad spirits who are said to steal the first child.) Danny was six years old when his family escaped from Vietnam to America. He feels himself as a US citizen, dresses in the latest fashion and speaks American perfectly. Danny can\'t speak his mother tongue Vietnamese very well and he prefers to be an American. Being the oldest in his family, he is responsible for his sisters and brothers. Danny is sixteen years old and he still attends school.
Tiffany Marie Schultz: She is as old as Danny and goes to the same schools as him. She and Danny are in love with each other. Tiffany is very pretty and she is very open-minded. She does not mind Danny\'s Vietnamese origin.
Frank Schultz: Is Tiffany\'s older brother. He is the member of a skinhead gang and he is violent and full of prejudices. He is against Tiffany\'s friendship with Danny and he threatens Danny to leave Tiffany alone. Frank is the head of the house as Mr. Schultz has died a few years ago.
Bradley Schultz: is Tiffany\'s younger brother. He sits in a wheelchair and has to be looked after. Bradley likes Danny and Mrs. Schultz likes Danny as well.
Calvin Pickney: He is as old as Danny and his best friend. Calvin is a typical American teenager. He is likeable and has got a good sense of humor.
Sang Le: Two years older than Danny. He saved Danny\'s life when Danny was six years old. Sang Le has been in a re-education camp in Vietnam. His father was fighting against the war and died in a re-education camp, which was in reality a prison. Sang Le\'s mother Nga blamed the soldiers and was therefore hit by them. When Sang Le tried to help her he was put in the re-education camp at the age of nine. His mother killed herself shortly after this incident. Sang Le comes to stay with Danny\'s family but he does not like America. His English is very bad and he keeps on dwelling on his Vietnams memories. Therefore he falls in with a Vietnam gang.
Kirn: Danny's sister. Her Vietnams name is Hien. She dresses in very short skirts and rebels against almost everything. She does not like Vietnams customs and she prefers to hang around with her American friends.
Lan: Danny's youngest sister
Thuy: Danny\'s younger brother
Dao: Danny\'s uncle, married to Lien.
Lien: She is Danny\'s aunt. Her American name is Linda.
Cha: Danny's father
Ma: Danny\'s mother
Ba: Danny\'s grandmother. She is a typical Vietnamese, hates everything that is American and has very old4ashioned attitudes. She therefore usually quarrels with Kim.
Hong and Cuc: Two Vietnamese girls. Danny ones rescues them from a dangerous gang but he actually does not like them. Hong is in love with Danny but he does not love her. Sang Le in addition loves Hong. Cuc is always seen with her sister. She is often unfriendly. Hong is extremely shy.
Tho: is called Cobra by everybody and the leader of a very violent Vietnamese gang.
Plot:
High School sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.
Danny lives in two worlds. On the one hand there is his family who lives according to Vietnamese tradition and on the other hand there are Danny\'s American friends, who sometimes do not understand all Vietnamese customs and beliefs. Danny has almost given up to explain everything to them and he knows that his friends will never fully understand why it is said that Vietnamese people have got the blood of a dragon in their veins or other stories.
Danny\'s family has escaped from Vietnam when Danny was six years old. They escaped from the Vietcong, Northern Vietnamese soldiers, who were fighting against the South.
Danny's cousin Sang Le, who has been kept in a re-education camp, in Vietnam, comes to America as he does not have a family in Vietnam anymore. Ba is very fond of Sang Le because he is a real Vietnamese. Sang Le has saved Danny\'s life when he was a kid and Ba loves to tell this story again and again.
Sang Le is very unhappy in America. He can't speak the language and his school report is apart from art horrible. As he does not find any American friends, he falls in with a Vietnamese gang whose leader is Cobra.
This gang is very violent and one time they even rob uncle Dao\'s shop and threaten him and Lien!
But although Danny warns his cousin, Sang Le refuses to believe that Cobra and his friends would do such a thing. Sang Le hangs around with them more often and he starts to play billard for huge sums of money.
As Sang Le is in love with Hong, he arranges a double-date. Hong is accompanied by her sister Cuc and Danny 1$ surprised when he sees his date. It is not Cuc, whom he does not like at all, but Tiffany. Danny has been in love with her for a while and after this double-date they actually get together. The only problem is Tiffany\'s brother Frank. He also belongs to a gang and he despises Vietnamese people. He forbids Tiffany to meet Danny and he even beats Danny up.
Then things happen very quickly: Kim runs away from home out of protest against her granny but is found after some days. Ba gets to know that Sang Le does not go to school but meets with a gang and she is very upset. Sang Le promises to get away from Cobra but then he is found dead in the streets. Frank and his friends have killed him. Cobra takes revenge and kills Brian, one of Frank\'s friends, who was actually the murderer of Sang Le, but nobody knows that Cobra did it apart from Danny Frank is put on trial and Danny splits up with Tiffany. He can\'t bear the thought that her brother is to blame for his cousin's death.
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