Nam Le, The Boat
Adapted by Matt Huynh for SBS: http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
Structure
The digital story is divided into 6 “chapters” with 4 “side stories”, with a title page at the
beginning and “credits” at the end.
Chapter 1 – The Storm
Side story – Ancestors
Chapter 2 – A Good Child
Side story – Re-education
Chapter 3 – Relief
Side story – Bidong Refugee Camp
Chapter 4 – After the Storm
Chapter 5 – Slow Fire
Side story – Quyen and Truong’s back story
Chapter 6 – Land
Questions on the text:
Opening credits
1. How do visual, sound and animation techniques combine in the opening credits to
create atmosphere?
Chapter 1 – The Storm
2. Vocabulary: Look up the definitions of these words.
Parts of the boat Storm
apertures crosswind
beam chorus
hatch heeled (meaning in this context)
gunwale bearing down
hold (noun, in this context) crested
tilt
3. Identify a language technique used in the line “bodies… writhing toward space as
though impelling the boat to heave to”. What is the effect of this imagery?
4. How do the words interact with the image (foreground and background) and the
animation at this moment?
5. Identify a language technique used in the description of Truong: “his face as
impassive as that of a ceramic toy soldier”. What does this imagery suggest?
6. How does the visual image of Truong reinforce this description?
7. Identify one language technique used in the line “Wind screamed through the
cracks”. Suggest why this has been used and what its effect is.
8. What is the effect of animation, visual images (e.g. colour, focus, graphics), and
sound in conveying ideas at this moment?
9. Look closely at the screen shot below. How does Matt Huynh convey Mai’s fear at
the storm’s power? Look at the choice of language and visuals.
10. This is the first time the reader sees a recurring motif in the story- the eye painted on
the ship’s hull. Read about the symbolism of the eye on Vietnamese fishing boats:
https://fishbio.com/field-notes/mekong-basin/eyes-afloat .
11. Read from “She was crammed in by a boatload of human bodies…” to the speech
bubble “Try to sleep”. How do the visual features convey Mai’s efforts to shut out
the events and people around her?
12. What are Mai’s thoughts and feelings at this moment, and how are they conveyed
through the narrative, sound effects and her facial expressions?
13. Describe how the voice of Quyen is introduced? Who is she speaking to? Why does
Mai later (scroll below the side-story) “let herself pretend Quyen was speaking to her
and not to Truong”?
Side Story – Ancestors
The first side story is introduced during the storm. In groups, work through the following
questions:
14. What visual clues are there in this screenshot that this is a different story to the main
narrative?
15.
Explain the cultural traditions of lighting incense and praying to ancestors. You may need
to do some research.
16. How does this side story combine actual events on the boat with superstitions about
the ancestors? Comment on visual features, language and sound. Is this real or
imagined or both? Give some evidence.
17. Explain the following lines:
“the hundred people on deck… expected to die here but were instead
granted this eerie reprieve”
“maybe the voices on the water were those of their ancestors”
“They had ventured into the fields of the dead”
