The Gangster We Are All Looking For Analysis

It is hard for anyone to let go of their past, whether their memories are painful or pleasant. The past is an especially tricky topic for immigrants, who might be able to divide their lives into two; before migrating and after. Immigrants must choose not only how to relate to their past but also how to explain their past to their offspring. In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, lê thi diem thúy tells the story of her family’s immigration to America through detailed vignettes from her mother’s and father’s life. Her mother especially has struggled relating her past to her present. Ma sees the struggle of talking about her life in Vietnam as an opportunity to omit and erase the negative memories from her past. In Vietnam, Ma spent most of her

After they meet Ma’s personality changes completely; she smokes cigarettes and walks through the forest. Ma’s parents soon disown her, and she has a baby with Ba. It is only when they move to America that Ma feels guilty about her past. She wishes to remember exclusively the happy times she shared with her family, when she was still the perfect daughter in her parent’s eyes. But with Ba around, she must face the reality of both past and present. In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, by lê thi diem thúy, Ba’s presence in Ma’s life as well as his role in her transformation as an immigrant hinder Ma’s determination to hold onto a false memory of Vietnam.

The easiest way for many immigrants to tell their story is to look at cause and effect; X event happened, so as a result we moved to Y, and so on. Usually it is

When Ma was pregnant with lê thi diem thúy, she felt strong pull towards her own childhood while walking around at night. At the time, she was alone. Ba had left to fight far away and her parents did not want anything to do with her. She was walking around when she spotted a metal tube from her childhood. “She began to walk toward the tube. She had a sudden urge to be inside it. The world felt dangerous to her and she was alone… ‘But I remember,’ she muttered out loud, ‘as a girl I sometimes slept in here.’ This is what she wanted now, to sleep inside the tube.” (Page 86) Here, Ma stands at the divide between her former and future self. It is the first glimpse of Ma’s regret the story mentions. Her rebellion brought this situation about, where she is alone, both in the physical and emotional struggles of carrying a baby. In a moment of pure despair Ma wants simply to return to her former self, the perfect daughter who can rely on her family to take care of her. Her relationship with Ba is the only thing that prevents her from doing so. Then she might not be pregnant and alone, where the only piece of her childhood left is a cold tube. And because the tube is a remnant of her past, she desperately clings to it and wants to sleep inside of it. Because she was alone, she could not seek support from much less confront her husband. The