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Book Report: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Huyen Huynh
Union University
Book Report: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down tells a story about the Lee family and the challenge they had to face when their daughter, Lia Lee, was diagnosed with epilepsy. In particular, during Lia's hospitalized the Lee family's struggle with a language barrier, and the cultural different between western and eastern medicine. Anne Fadiman allows readers to see the differences between western and eastern cultures as well as how each group views the patient.
Cultural Competency
I thought this book was amazing but heartbreaking as the same time. This book helps me gain new knowledge about the Hmong culture and their beliefs. This book also showed the differences between cultures and miscommunication between the family and medical professionals, which led to arguments between the Lees and the doctors. Lia belonged to a family who did not agree with western medicinal practices, as they had their own ways of caring for their people in form of traditional remedies. The Lia
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On one hand, the Lees truly love their daughter and want the best for her, but their culture's view of medicine does not help her seizures. On the other hand, the doctor has the knowledge and training to help manage Lia's condition, but they have no respect for her parents' culture. The language barrier makes it difficult for the doctors to acknowledge Lia's conditions. This is why the doctors' originals misdiagnosed Lia with a bronchial infection instead of epilepsy. From my experience shadowing the doctors at St. Thomas's hospital, if Lia's doctor has tried to take the time to get to know the family, then they could have saved Lia. This book is a perfect example of showing the miscommunication between two different cultures that led to complications in
She heard about the Hmong through a friend, and so she spent 4 years living in Merced, California and another 5 writing this book. She attempts to stay fairly neutral in her writing, though through her time with the Lees, she confesses that her writing may appear biased toward the Hmong culture rather than toward the Americans. However, in the end she could not blame one side or the other for the unfortunate tragedy of Lia, who got hit in the cross-fire between these two cultures. Her theoretical view is a type of cultural relativism. Neither the Hmong nor the Americans could emerge as the better culture. She does not address any questions about direct unethical practices. The Hmong did not practice human sacrifices, and the animals they did sacrifice were theirs. She does seem to believe that every culture has its weak and strong
the Hmong culture the man has to pay a price for his wife. The man’s side of the family
...an. Ma Jian magnifies taboo, incest, and guilt in this family story. The only religious aspect was the old man praying to Buddha to wash away his sins. Ma Jian family interpretation did not include love, amity, or hope but is instead manifested with sins and a twisted family.
The Latehomecommer by Kao Kalia Yang is a beautifully crafted memoir. Yang’s distinct prose style is captivating combined with her powerful narrative about the Hmong immigrant experience in America creates an unforgettable and insightful piece. She masterfully captures not only her story as an immigrant, but that of her whole family and to some extent the entire culture. Yang’s use of voice, particularly her use of a distinctly different more child-like voice when depicting her younger self, is a large contributing factor to what makes this memoir so unique and engaging. In The Latehomecomer, Yang captures the voice of herself as a child in a way that is so effective that it inspired me to go back through my memoir and attempt to do the same.
In The Latehomecomer, by Kao Kalia Yang shares her story and the story of her family’s search for a home and identity. Her family’s story voices the story of the Hmong people and their plight. From every stage of their journey, from the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia to the freezing winter of Minnesota, Yang and the Hmong were compelled to redefine their identity, willingly or unwillingly. While growing up, Yang’s parents would often ask her, “’What are you?’ and the right answer was always, ‘I am Hmong.’” (Yang, 1) For “Hmong” to be the right answer, then what does it mean to be “Hmong”? From the personal story shared by Yang, and the universal story of the Hmong people, the Hmong identity cannot be contained in
To conclude, with the Lees being Hmong and not wanting to conform to society and abide by the way things works, I feel Lia’s fate was inevitable. The doctors did as much as they could, but in the end, it still wasn’t enough to prevent Lia from going brain dead. Language and communication may have been the one thing that caused Lia to suffer because the doctors couldn’t understand the Hmong and the Hmong couldn’t or refused to understand the doctors.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
Though Lia’s parents and her doctors wanted the best for her, the above barriers were creating a hindrance to her treatment. They both were not understanding each other and the interpreter was also not there, doctors wanted to transfer her to another best hospital because they were not getting with her disease but her parents misunderstood the situation and thought they were shifting her for their own benefit. In expansion to these convictions, Hmong likewise have numerous traditions and folks that are negotiated by those of the American standard and therapeutic groups; for instance, some Hmong customarily perform custom creature sacrifice and in view of extremely particular entombment customs and the alarm of every human's numerous souls potentially getting away from, the accepted Hmong convictions don't consider anybody experiencing obtrusive restorative surgery. The Hmong medicinal framework is dependent upon nature-based hypothesis that lets life stream as it may be, while the western restorative framework is dependent upon the modernized humanism-based medicinal science. So when Lia was dealt with by the American specialist with western pharmaceutical, Lia's guardians don't concur with them....
In looking back upon his experience in Auschwitz, Primo Levi wrote in 1988: ?It is naïve, absurd, and historically false to believe that an infernal system such as National Socialism (Nazism) sanctifies its victims. On the contrary, it degrades them, it makes them resemble itself.? (Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, 40). The victims of National Socialism in Levi?s book are clearly the Jewish Haftlings. Survival in Auschwitz, a book written by Levi after he was liberated from the camp, clearly makes a case that the majority of the Jews in the lager were stripped of their human dignity. The Jewish prisoners not only went through a physical hell, but they were psychologically driven under as well. Levi writes, ??the Lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts? We are slaves, deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned to certain death?? (Levi, 41). One would be hard pressed to find passages in Survival in Auschwitz that portray victims of the camp as being martyrs. The treatment of the Jews in the book explicitly spells out the dehumanization to which they were subjected. It is important to look at how the Jews were degraded in the camp, and then examine whether or not they came to embody National Socialism after this.
Tradition is defined in the dictionary as the handing down from generation to generation of the same customs and beliefs. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, I believe has two main topics addressed: the traditions of the Hmong people, and the dangers of being unable to communicate. The misunderstanding of these two consequential points, I believe caused the majority of conflict that arose.
as a loving and gentle God, but in this sermon, He is seen as someone
Share the story of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.
The one of the main themes in the epilogue, and in the entire novel is
The Tale of Kieu provides an invaluable insight into Vietnamese culture, including social ideals and religious values. The issues of marriage, family and Buddhism are relayed clearly and artistically. I feel as though I understand Vietnam better because I have read it.
One of my most memorable experiences in Asia was my trip to the doctor. I knew that my slight fever and scratchy throat could be contributed to lack of sleep. With a twelve-hour time difference, I had the worst jet lag that was possible. Yet, the Secretariat felt that I should go to the doctor, so off I went. Once we arrived I took one look at the building and decided that I felt much better. The office was a hole in the wall that practiced family medicine and surgery. It was in stark contrast to the gigantic, pristine medical facilities I was used to. There was a very long line to see the doctor so I took a seat next to a hacking baby and an anxious young mother. What happened next was the most distressing part of my adventure. Once my chaperone announced that I was part of the school program, the doctor took me right away. As I followed the nurse back I passed by people who had been sitting there for much longer. There was a man with b...