He wishes he could be like Jeff, who has a “calm quiet” (42) to him that contrasts with Matt’s sense of insecurity. Matt’s adoptive mother, whom he refers to as “mom,” hopes music will “ soothe monsters” (28), and Matt takes to the piano right away, liking the certainty it provides as the “notes always stay / the same” (33). Matt begins taking piano lessons from Jeff Harding, a Vietnam vet who works at the same hospital as Matt’s father. His adoptive mother, Elizabeth, sings him lullabies, but Matt still doesn’t feel completely safe and at home in his new life.

Matt suffers from nightmares of the trauma he’s experienced. Matt, with his dark hair and eyes, feels noticeably different from his adoptive mother and brother, who have blonde hair, but with the American features he inherited from his father, he also feels separate from the Vietnamese children he meets at the adoption agency. Now, two years after Matt was airlifted out of Vietnam, he lives with an American family and their own young son, Tommy. Matt begged Phang My to let Matt’s younger brother go with him, but she wouldn’t, as she worried no American family would want a disabled child. Matt recalls his mother pushing him onto a helicopter along with other crying children, telling him to “ Survive” (4). Matt mentions his birth mother Phang My an American father who left Phang My and her children, promising to return but never doing so and Matt’s younger brother, who has “ stumps instead of legs” (9).

OL5817300W Page_number_confidence 90.09 Pages 234 Partner Innodata Pdf_module_version 0.0.20 Ppi 300 Rcs_key 24143 Republisher_date 20201224034708 Republisher_operator Republisher_time 257 Scandate 20201221190711 Scanner Scanningcenter cebu Scribe3_search_catalog isbn Scribe3_search_id 9780545080927 Tts_version 4.All the Broken Pieces begins with seventh-grader Matt Pin’s fragmented memories of a Vietnam filled with “fear and fog smoke and death” (3). Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 23:05:12 Boxid IA40024510 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

All the broken pieces by ann e burg