Nam Le

I really liked the story. I thought it would have a different ending though, I thought the dad would've died. I thought the relationship between the father and son were similar to Kelly's relationship with her mom and Tony's parents. Both children try to do what is expected of them to please their parents but they can't relate to their parent's experiences. The character's girlfriend could have had a bigger role. I would have liked to see how the main character's father and girlfriend would react to each other. There was a lot of orientalism with how people treated the main character and his writing. There's nothing wrong with writing about personal experiences, but the criticism about "ethnic" was what I expected because it's about minorities. The attacks about his story reminded me of common sense and how people just assume there is one way to look at things. Not all of his friends understood his stories. I feel like only his girlfriend did because she was encouraging him to finish. I can relate to having to live up to my parent's expectations of me. My parents don't like what I'm majoring in and they don't think I'll accomplish much with my degree. Since ignoring them and pursuing what I'm passionate about, they've somewhat come around. I wish there was more to the story to see how the main character confronted his father and if his actions are relatable. I'd also like to see the father's reasoning for why he burned his son's story when he helped him write it. I also wished the mom and girlfriend had a bigger role in the story. There's not enough female characters unless the main character is female because the gender and name isn't necessarily revealed. The main thing I related this to from class was struggles of an Asian American child who has immigrant parents. The perspectives are always different and hardly ever the same. I can't relate to my mom's past experiences in Thailand nor do I want to. I appreciate everything she's done for me, but that doesn't mean I'll live my life the way she wants me to. 

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