Read the excerpt from "homesick" by jean fritz. of course it wasn't the same as one of the forty-eight states; still, when we stepped off the president taft in honolulu (where we were to stay a couple of days before going on to san francisco), we wondered if we could truthfully say we were stepping on american soil. i said no. with these sentences, the narrator is expressing confusion about the relationship between honolulu and america. providing useful background information about honolulu and san francisco. revealing that she and other passengers may have different points of view about america. asserting that her opinion about america is correct and should be respected by the other passengers.