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How does the author's choice to include the memory of the dunce cap in the flashback of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor contribute to the meaning of the text? Be sure to cite evidence to support your analysis.

Use these guiding questions to help you formulate your answer: How does this memory relate to the attack on Pearl Harbor? Why do you think the narrator included it? How does this memory relate to the narrator's sense of identity? How might this memory and the memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor influence the narrator or develop his character?

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Last updated by Aslan
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Because of his young culture clash in school, Chester struggles to make peace with his identity from a young age. He's torn between the reverence of his parents' customs with the urge to fit in with his peers. In fact, he's embarrassed to be so different. This rift between his cultural heritage and his social identity only worsens as he grows up witnessing all the trouble the government causes for his family and their property. His early school was filled with racism from both teachers and students. Pearl Harbor is simply a metaphor of visual minorities, in this case Japanese, were treated in America.