6/1 Nam Le


After reading Nam Le’s story, it was very intriguing to read because it tackles issues that many people face today in the form of fiction. By seeing characters interact just like how average people in society do today, it shows the realism of the story and its meaning. A specific part of the story was when the main character talked about how they left home at the age of sixteen, doing everything their father prohibited. By piecing things together, it is like the father disowned the child. This is actually stereotypically seen in Asian/Asian-American culture today where the parents of an Asian is seen “disowning” their child after doing something that is labeled “bad” in Asian culture. The father holds a form of pride for his family and if anyone were to act out of line, then he would be ashamed. Eventually, the father in the story goes as far as even giving his own wife an ultimatum on where she can life after finding out that she has been helping their child. This can relate to my life in which, as a first generation Asian-American, my parents hold a lot of common Asian ideals. A very common one that my parents bring up is not shaming the family because other family members and friends would look down upon our family. Anything that is done and deemed shameful, the family enters a dark place, but if sometime is done and is deemed successful, the family lightens up greatly. The father and son face a form of cultural struggle because the father wants his son to come back, but is too prideful, while the son wants to be free, but falls down the wrong path due to his influences around him.

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