Analysis Of Heaven And Earth

710 Words2 Pages

A New Beginning Le Ly, in the film Heaven and Earth has clearly had her moments of hardship. Le Ly in the face of the Vietnam war was stripped from the remnants of her childhood and faced with her enemy on multiple occasions. Le Ly’s older brothers went off to fight for their country, while she and her family stayed on their village to ten their farm. It wasn’t long until the war was at their front door. Le Ly was then tortured by the Viet- Con, almost raped by soldiers; if that wasn’t enough to break her spirit then her and he mother had to move away from their beloved village to find work in Saigon. There Le Ly is seduced by her boss, and becomes pregnant. This is where Le Ly’s true story begins, she learns that in order to make her son’s …show more content…

However, in Le Ly’s story this is not the case. Moving to America did not solve her or Steve’s problems after the war. Just before Le Ly had chosen to move to America he mother had headed a warning. “Americans have not beginning or end, they don’t care about their ancestors, they think they are free to do any bad thing they want in this world. You will not be happy with this man” (Stone, Hayslip, 1993). Le Ly’s mother was foreshadowing what was to come in America. Once in America, Steve and Le Ly’s marriage was in shambles. They could not get along for themselves and for their children. When Le Ly asks for a divorce and Steve threatens to kill her is when Le Ly had come to the conclusion, both of them had been inversely affected by the war. They may not have shared the same experience but they were both suffering from the wars consequences. “Different skin, same suffering” (Stone, Hayslip, …show more content…

“Karma is the belief that what you do is directly linked with the cause” (). Le Ly sees her ability to suffer through all her hardships in the Vietnam war, and in her marriage with Steve as a work of karma. In order for her to be able to be happy and enjoy her life she had to suffer through all the bad to be able to create the circle of karma. Le Ly through her many years of suffering, has realized the war was able to help her get through the circle of karma and understand the war, herself and Steve. Le Ly believes that war brings out the worst in human kind and that after we get through our worst times we can see the good in ourselves. What makes a person strong, what is a person able to live through, the compassion we have for one another. Le Ly believes that though war is a terribly destructive process, it brings out the true human spirit. Though our hardships when we are at our worst, in our suffering the true nature of human beings comes to

Open Document