SET 1: SING TO THE DAWN

In the novel Sing To The Dawn written by Minfong Ho, an important

event that portrays the strength of the character is when Dawan and Kwai
were at the river. Kwai was thinking about Dawans words, about him being
a bully as in a previous incident Kwai pushes Dawan away when she tried
to stop him from hitting a girl, injuring Dawan when he did that. As it was
raining at that time, Dawan passed Kwai her umbrella caringly and that
caused him to make a decision about letting his sister to continue her
studies at the city with the scholarship she had won.

This event shows that Dawan is honest. She sincerely tells what she
thinks. She was close to her brother but still thought what her brother did
to her and Bao was not right. She told Kwai he was being a bully just
because he was strong; not as a means to vent out her frustration, but she
believed it was not the right thing to do and Kwai needed to know that.

This incident also shows that Dawan is caring. She was previously
injured when she tried to stop Kwai from hitting Bao. Kwai pushes her
away and she fell on top of a pile of broken bird cages, injuring himself.
Despite all this, Dawan still gave her umbrella to her brother caringly when
they were talking at the river, as it was raining at that time. This shows that
Dawan cares a lot for her brother despite their challenges and conflicts.

Apart from that, this incident also shows Kwai cares for his sister too.
When Dawan passed her umbrella to him, Kwai realised that his sister been
nice to him even when he sometimes treated his sister unfairly due to his
feelings. Dawan told him earlier that he was being a bully for trying to hit
Bao and accidentally injuring her, yet she still gave her umbrella to him
trying to protect him from the rain. This made Kwai to realise that he had to
let Dawan pursue her dream of continuing her studies with the scholarship,
for he also cared about Dawan. It was noble of Kwai to finally let go of his
jealousy of his sister winning the scholarship, and he was able to do that
because he cared for Dawan.

All the above examples show how the incident of both siblings having
a conversation at the river portrays the strengths of the characters.