6/1 Nam Le


In Nam Le’s “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice,” the short story shows the relationship between a 2nd generation son and a 1st generation father. In the beginning of the story, Nam’s father comes to visit him in Iowa, where Nam was at for a writer’s workshop. Nam was afraid that his father would scold him for being so messy. His father didn’t really scold him, but instead took matters into his own hands and cleaned up the clutters. Nam was also afraid that his father would not like his girlfriend, who was a Caucasian. Nam tries to hide his American lifestyle from his distant yet close father because Nam didn’t want to make his father disappointed in him. This relates to the Laotian Daughter article as Nam and the second-generation Laotian women experience misunderstandings within their relationships with their parents. Since Nam felt the distance from his father, he instead tried to rekindle their relationship by writing his father’s life story. Everything in the story was from Nam’s perspective, which is biased and inaccurate. His father burned Nam’s story because of that reason and his father did not like his personal story being out in the public. I understand Nam wrote the story with good intentions of rekindling his relationship with his father, but putting pieces of a story without talking or getting permission to publish is inappropriate. I did this once for a history project. I talked with my dad about it and he agreed on sharing his story. My short story of his life experience during the Vietnam War in Vietnam is now somewhere in a local memoir book back in SF. Not all parents refuse to share their stories, it’s a matter of how deep of a story they would like to share. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laotian Daughter and Monkey Dancer

In the article “The Political of Race: Political Identity and the Struggle for Social Rights” by Bindi V. Shah, it mentions the struggles that the Laotian community faced in Contra Costa County.   Laotian community were one of the least represented community in the county due to the lack of representation via politics.   They experience racism through the structural “neighborhood race effect” of “underfunded and resource-deprived schools, environmental pollution and low-wage jobs.”   (53)   When it comes to the perception of model minority, it heavily affects the Laotian community negatively because they are not on the same playing field as other Asians who are economically success and assimilated.   So when the fire arose in the Contra Costa Valley, the Laotian elders were not aware that the fire happened until hours later.   The reason was because they could not understand the messages that were being said when they were informed.   So many elders e...
Read more

5/30- Fiske

In "Shopping For Pleasure", one point was raised "In shopping malls and department stores women's pleasure and desires are catered to, but only in so far as they serve the greater interest of the market". I somewhat disagree with this. While it may be true that the notion of shopping and the market is mostly managed by the predominantly male. The fact that women have a place to exercise a small resistances is important. It is also worth noting that it might be true that it is mostly managed by males, women are exercising the power to vote with their wallet. Also, it creates a space where women can be employ because of the fact that they belong to the group of the target audience, therefore, they have better knowledge of the market. So I argue that shopping malls might not be the place created by women, but it is a stepping stone for women to achieve equal right.
Read more

5/23 Kelly Loves Tony Part 2 Video Response

5/23 Angel Truong Kelly Loves Tony Part 2 Video Response             The documentary Kelly Loves Tony highlights the difference between second-generations Asian Americans who are either assimilated or not assimilated. Kelly wants a life where she is not restricted by traditional gender roles. However, Tony is not assimilated as Kelly since he values family more than Kelly’s well-being. This is depicted from his rant with his boss where Tony does not understand why Kelly is always upset with his family. He believes she should care for their baby and his family conveying that he wants her to be a domestic wife and daughter-in-law. Their conflict also ties to the model minority myth where Asian Americans are not as assimilated or obedient as the myth depicts them because Tony has a criminal record and both Kelly and Tony are struggling to live with his family who are very dependent on each other. This is displayed from the fact th...
Read more