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2. After reading “An entrepreneurs story”, I realized one sentence in particular stood out to me. The author wrote, “Why should a mans name be based on his ability to waste money?” (pg 121). This was soon after the character had gone to the zoo and bought all the cakes from a stand and fed them to the animals. That story took off and was written in a paper and soon after people began to respect him. He even knew what he did to be troublesome and immoral, and didn’t understand why that made people want to talk about him. I found this particular bit interesting because it shows how much money influences perception. If a poor man had taken all the cakes and thrown them away, it would be considered a heinous crime. But a rich man buying them and still essentially throwing them away when there are starving people, was seen in a different light. Acts of greed and selfishness walk the fine line of being respected and despised. The townspeople talking about him and yet wanting him to know and like them shows this.

3. While reading ‘After cowboy chicken came to town’ I noticed how much “capitalism america” was both despised and wanted. All throughout the short story were themes of capitalism vs socialism. It could be seen when the main characters father talked about how jealous he was of his son’s hourly wage and how he had fought in a war and would never make the same pay, all while the son complained about how he wished he was salaried and didn’t have to work so hard for a hourly pay with little benefits. The townspeople would also call them “foreign dogs” (pg210) and complain about them taking away from other Chinese businesses and yet would still eat at the restaurant. The employees despised Peter when they learned of his earnings and how he was burning the leftovers (as per business policy), and when they tried to go on strike, they were all terminated. This enraged them and they didn’t understand how they could lose their job with one word, “terminated”. All of these events showcase the way in which the characters had an inner battle with despising american business policies and also relying on them and trying to move up in their positions with them, again relating to the theme of capitalism respect and hatred.

4. While these are both pieces of Ha Jin, they are different in their own way. There were many things that stood out to me within each story but what resonated with me the most, and having experienced it, was the wasting of the food at the end of the work day in the Cowboy Chicken story. I have worked for a resort over the past 3 years in food and beverage as well as a small internal pizzeria. A lot of the times we serve 2-3 course meals to the guests and almost always, there are extra plates full of expensive meats, sides, and desserts. At the end of every banquet shift, the food and beverage manager is required to dump the food into the trash. There is some grace towards us employees, where we get to eat what’s left, but by the time we are all fed, there is still so much left over that they are forced to throw it out per their guidelines. We see this in Cowboy chicken when Peter is caught burning the extra chicken in a hidden area and then leaves the remains, when this food could have easily gone to the workers or the poor/less fortunate in the area. Im almost positive this is more common, but a lot of the times, it is never talked about because of the damage it could do to brand image, as we have seen with Dunkin Donuts.

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