Everyone’s Past is Different
People face different struggles based on where they are born. In Saigon, Vietnam children became victims of the Fall of Saigon and were evacuated to America to save them from any danger that might occur. President Gerald Ford agreed to send aid to the orphan children as well as children they felt were in harms way, even if their parents were still alive in order to give them a brighter future. After 30 plane trips, they had rescued over 10,300 infants and relocated them in homes in the mid-west. In the story, We Should Never Meet, by Aimee Phan It tells the struggles that the children brought over from Vietnam faced growing up being Amerasian in mostly white families trying to reconnect their past and the hardships
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Despite turning eighteen and no long being in the United States Foster Care System she is very smart and ambitious and likes knowing about her past even if she knows it may hurt to find out about where she came from. She goes to an Ivy League school and continues to reach out and see what it was like when she was a baby in Vietnam. I would like to believe, if I was put in a different country when I was a child I would want to know about my real home country. I may not have been born in Ireland, but my ancestors were from there so naturally I am a little curious about how my whole family came to America. She has it tough because she doesn’t have much information on her past yet she still goes to visit when Huan, and Gwen go so she can still see what her families past was like. Kim had more of a bitter attitude and she tried finding her true mother back in Vietnam. In America she seems to lead a dark life because she couldn’t connect with whom she was supposed to be if she grew up in Vietnam. I can see Huan’s side of the story because he is mixed race and cannot fully side with Vietnamese people because they do not look at the fully as himself. When dating Emily he even mentioned how it would be better if he were even half white it would be better and if he was full Vietnamese it would be amazing. Instead, he has to face being looked at as different when he already does not want to be in Vietnam visiting. In the end however, I think he enjoyed it a bit more than I thought he would, but he was still uneasy about exploring a past that he looks at as a period of time in his life that he was not wanted. Even if you come from another country you can still have questions about the past because when you are young you do not remember as
The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of birthplace, social class, or economic class, can attain success in the American society. Sadly, countless people will never achieve success in this society because they are foreign born. In Warren St. John’s book Outcasts United, St. John sheds light onto the numerous hardships that the tiny American town of Clarkston faces when thousands of refugees attempt to create a brand-new life there. At first Clarkston stood completely divided by original residents and refugees, but it wasn’t until the refugees and old residents saw past their physical differences of language, culture, and past life experiences that Clarkston began to thrive. Although the majority of projects started out helping
I thought it would be an interesting idea to enlighten and inform people about the Lao Iu Mein and our process of immigrating to the U.S. as well as the challenges we have to overcome. I interviewed my parents, Lao Iu Mein refugees who immigrated to the United States from Thailand. Through this interview, I had a chance to hear for the first time the story of my parents' struggles and experiences as they journeyed to a place where they became "aliens" and how that place is now the place they call "home."
Even though Little Saigon provided Vietnamese American with economic benefit, political power, this landmark also witnessed many difficulties that Vietnamese experienced. Vietnamese American experienced many traumatic events prior to migration such as war, journey on boats, therefore many of them suffered posttraumatic stress disorder, stress, and depression. Significantly, Vietnamese refugees who went to the re-education camps sustained torture, humiliation, deprivation, brainwashing and several other punishments from Vietnamese Communist. Those refugees have higher rates of having mental disorder. Language barrier is another obstacle that...
The novel “The Orphan Train” written by Christina Baker Kline is a fictional portrayal of a young girl who migrated to America from Ireland, and found herself orphaned at the age of ten in New York City in the year 1929. The book tells the story of the pain and anguish she suffered, and the happiness she would later find. From the mid 1850’s through the early 1900’s there was an surge of European immigrants just like Niamh and her family who came to America in search of a better life. Unfortunately, most were not as prosperous as they had hoped to be. As a result, many poverty-stricken children were left orphaned, abandoned, and homeless. They roamed the streets looking for food, money, and refuge by any means necessary. Since there
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
The United States and its people take great pride in knowing that the U.S. is the greatest nation in the world. That is why it’s our duty to father the rest of the world when conflicts arise. American culture and ideals are also thought to take precedents over all other cultures and ideals. In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down, written by Anne Fadiman, there are many great examples of how American culture is imposed on the people residing with in its enclosed boundaries. The U.S. going to war in Vietnam is also a great example of how the U.S. tried to impose American values on the “less fortunate.” Through understanding America’s so called “duty” in Vietnam one can interpret the intervention of American idealism in the life of a Hmong family.
Imagine that you are in Vietnam in 1975. Out of your house window, you hear gunshots and screams of pain and agony. You hide in fear as your parents are packing their things, planning to head a boat to a refugee camp in America, as it will keep you away from those pesky Communists. Who knew that a simple boat ride to a refugee camp would cause so much stress when realising that you will have to leave all your old memories behind? This is what Ha experiences when running away from home with her family because of Communists. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a historical fiction set in South Vietnam in a small town called Saigon. Ha, a rebellious ten-year-old Vietnamese girl, her three brothers, and her mother who had recently lost her husband- must flee out of their hometown once war strikes. But this is a challenge, with little to no source of food and water, and with many eyes of the Communists staring down on them, wishing upon death. Will Ha and the rest of her family be able to flee safely to America, and if they do, will Ha be able to bound “back again” in her new home in
The Vietnam War caused great destruction in Laos, and so the Lee family migrated to America, after spending a short time in refugee camps in Thailand. After settling in America, Foua gives birth to Lia, who unbeknownst to them will suffer from epilepsy soon after she is born. For four years, little Lia is admitted to hospital seventeen times, after suffering both grand and petit mal seizures. Through miscommunication and a failure to understand each other’s cultural differences, both the parents of Lia, and her American doctors, are ultimately at fault for Lia’s tragic fate, when she is left in a vegetative state.
“Visualize Child Protective Services (CPS) walking up to your home to take your children away from you. Now picture this, picture what the children feel like escorted away from their parents left to wonder where they will end up.” Says Larry in the beginning of our interview. “Many children experience these thoughts as they walk out the front door of what they call home.” What can we do to ease the anxiety of these young children taken away from parents? Kinship care is one viable option that can ease the worry for children. However, kinship care is not the only placement for children who are taken away from their homes. Other out-of-home placements include group homes, residential treatments, private child welfare institutions, shelters, and even correctional facilities. “Children need a stable and healthy environment” says Larry the Vietnam Veteran. Kinship care is safe and can help many children by preparing them for a successful future. In this essay, I will have two main sections interviewing a Veteran friend of mine named Larry Pearson, whom served in the Vietnam War. The first section of this essay will be titled “Crabs”, which will discuss how all things came together in Larry’s life just as the critters all came together in the home in Mexico in the book “Tropic of Orange.” Many people made their way to the plot, just as many people were placed in Larry’s life, and this has played a major part in my life as well. The second section will be titled “Orange”. The orange in the book “Tropic of Orange” symbolized magic and dreams, so in this section of my paper I will discuss the great benefits of Larry’s decision to serve in Vietnam War. I will use Larry’s life to explain how I have linked together with variations of people ...
The grandmother is very old and has lived a very tough life in Vietnam. She “‘lost four of [her] children… twelve of [her] grandchildren and countless relatives to wars and famines’” (Meyer, 74) while in Vietnam. During her life she had very little time to enjoy herself, instead she had to focus on not only surviving, but also holding a family together and getting them through the hardships as well. On top of the Vietnam War, which killed an estimated 500,000-600,000 Vietnamese citizens alone (Weisner), she had to live through 2 additional wars and several famines. The implicated stress and hardships are almost unimaginable. This is evident in her stories and fairy tales she tells her granddaughters, which always have dark twist or no happy ending, or as the granddaughters say “The husband comes too late” (Meyer, 77) to stop the bad guy or save the
Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.
America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters. The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could. They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English. However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters. All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China. All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures. As they grew older the children realized that their ...
Although, African Americans are considered minorities in the United States, not all of them live in poverty. Many African Americans live in a middle class society along with the dominant culture. However, many African Americans do not live in a middle class society, but rather live in poverty and have to suffer along with this poverty. For instance, Donald Goines’s Black Girl Lost and Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family, two narrative novels, that illustrate the difference in two young African American girls lives and the society in which they inhabit. Not only do these young African American girls represent the two sides of poverty, they also represent how children can also qualify in the minority category. For example, Sandra lives in a run down apartment with a drunk mother who could care less about her daughter. In addition, Sandra remains all on her own and has to find ways in which to survive each day. But on the other hand, Lena lives in a nice size home with her two parents, her two brothers, and her grandmother, all who love her very much. Moreover, Lena has many family members who look after her and take extra special care for her because she is the baby of the family. Although, both Sandra and Lena lead very different lives, both are faced with challenges as a minority and as a child which questions their view on life.
“Paper Menagerie,” by Ken Liu, is an emotional story of a selfish son and his interactions with his out-of-place mother, who had immigrated from Asia to be his father’s wife. Jack is a half-Chinese, half-American boy who lives in Connecticut. In the beginning of the story, he is very attached to his mother, but certain incidents with other kids make him want to be as distant as possible from his Chinese mom. He demands that his mom converts to being a “normal” white American mom and that he and his family should give up all Asian customs. This beautiful story shows that selfishly basing your actions on the need to fit in can harm yourself and others.
As a young Vietnamese-American boy, I have always been curious about my culture and ancestry. My family has gone through a lot of struggles before coming to states, but I never had a history lesson of what their lives were like. Being born in the United States, I didn’t have to experience the hardships that my parents and grandparents had to deal with it. A big part of Vietnamese history is having to deal with the Vietnam War and the impacts of immigration. The Vietnam War took place in 1954 and lasted until 1975. The war grew because of the spread of Communism from North Vietnam to the South. Refugees had to risk losing their family, friends, and their lives in order to have a chance of survival. Vietnam faced many obstacles throughout history