2. What is Isa's strategy to avoid speaking English?

3. List ways in which Yamada and Isa stand in contrast to each other.

4. What does the road symbolize in this story?

5. How is Isa humiliated by the soldier who gives him a ride?

6. The woman at the school tries to help Isa. In what way might this be symbolic of America and Japan?

7. How does the principal humiliate the teachers in his opening remarks? What sort of counterattack does Yamada make?

9. Discuss shoes and chopsticks as symbols in this story.