Purple Heart (9-12)

In chapters 9-12 Andrew Fiu (the writer) started talking about how he moved to Green Lane Hospital from Middlemore and he was upset that he left Mr Weston behind but was happy that he was with children not only around his age but also suffered from Rheumatic Fever and he was surprised that children from different cultures suffered from it and it was just Pacific Islanders.He also talked about how ward 7 at Green Lane Hospital was much sadder then ward 8 at Middlemore hospital because of how young the children were and how some of them hadn't even experienced life or what its like to live outside of the hospital and yet they never ever cried they would just sit there and take their injections and go for test were as a child their age would probably be crying because someone to their ball away or cry just to get attention. He then started talking about his first operation that happened when he was 15 years old and how he got his heart valves from a young teenage girl who died in a car crash. During his operation he had a near-death-experience and during that time he saw his belated grandmother and had a full conversation with her. He also talked about how other people who have had a near-death-experience have seen the light, or Jesus or one of the angels and the light was so bright that all the light bulbs in the hospital put together wouldn't be as bright as that light. He also said people that haven't experienced NDE ( Near-Death-Experience) don't believe that he saw his grandmother so he just tells them the 'lie' version and that's the I-woke-up-and-saw-this-bright-light story because they find it more realistic then him talking to his belated grandmother. He then went on about how been in the hospital gave him the opportunity to hear about different religions and what they believe what happens after death as all religions have different perspectives on it.

Purple Heart chapter (1-8)

In the start of the novel the writer talks about how they moved from Samoa to New Zealand because his parents wanted a better life for them. Then he started talking about the school he went to and how he liked playing rugby and that he was in the school rugby team and wanted to be tin the All Blacks team when he is older. Later on he talked about when they moved to Otara and people would always think that it was a poor area but he talked about how they had something that money couldn't buy and that was hero's or true friends that looked out for each other. His examples was on two occasions two different people (teenage boys) jumped infront of a car to save someone  and ended up dying for it.This touch me as not many people would risk their own lives to save another and even the people (friends) watching it couldn't have been easy to watch their friend die infront of their eyes. Later on in the book he talks about how him and his brother would always get into trouble and how his brother would always blame it o him.On one occasion for his birthday they lit a cracker near the newly built garage and they ended up setting it on fire and before even the firemen came they ran away from the scene but as usual when they got back his brother sold him out , surprisingly though he never got into trouble for it.Then he started talking about the early stages of his sickness and how it  started ff with just been a really bad throat infection and high temperature that also meant he could go to school but just stay at home.While he was staying at home, his brother was getting into heaps of trouble because of the friends he was hanging out with which meant he was getting brought home by the police and that was seen as a disgrace to the family so his father was going to give his little bother a hiding to teach him some discipline but their mother begged and pleaded  for their father to leave him alone because she knew he would get a serious hiding. After his father gave him a waring his little brother got into trouble again and everybody in the house knew he was going to get a hiding then he started talking about how badly his father hit his little brother and how their mother was praying and pleading on her sons behalf. Later on he started talking about how they look back at that and how thankful his brother is that his father disciplined him because if it wasn't for his father he would probably have ended up in jail. Further on in the novel he talks about how he fainted and ended up in hospital, then finally got diagnosed which meant he wouldn't be leaving the hospital anytime soon. Then he went onto his time spent in the hospital, how he met a lovely old man that was always so graceful and happy, who unfortunately died later on but had a peaceful death.He also talked about how he was behind on school work, that with the illness he has he could forget about been on the All Blacks team, the grumpy old patient he shared a ward with, his family and friends that would come visit him in hospital, having to translated what the doctor was saying to his parents, how he began to read 'The Woman's Day' and newspaper to keep him company and help him fit in with what the other patience were talking about as he was put into the adults section of the hospital because of his age, the daily routine the nurses would have, how quite the ward and rest of the hallway was and how he had a lot of time to reflect on his short life that his had so far and how he wasn't expecting to live long because of the illness he has.