Theme Of Hunger In The American Dream

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The Replacement of American Dream
In Hunger, a story in Birds of Paradise Lost, Andrew Lam depicts a picture that numerous Vietnamese refugees were forced to escape from Vietnam to the United States due to the horrible living conditions during the World War period. In the story, Mr. Nguyen is a Vietnamese refugee who got away from Vietnam to the United States, and went through a shipwreck, a tragedy of cannibalism, and experience of living in the United States. His attitude towards his American life changes due to his tragic experience. In Hunger, Lam uses food to imply Mr. Nguyen’s attitude towards his American dream, show readers how Mr. Nguyen, a refugee who yearns for delicious food and more comfortable life, changes his attitudes towards …show more content…

Nguyen was still staying in Vietnam, his yearning for a stable, comfortable and peaceful life in the United States was reflected by his longing for delicious food in the United States. Because he is one of the victims of the Vietnam War, which “took away more than two million lives, in which many of them were civilians, three million were wounded, and hundreds of thousands of children were left orphans.” (Rohn 1) Also, the Vietnamese society was totally in turmoil since the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Numerous Vietnamese had become refugees and lots of them were trying to escape from Vietnam to the United States. According to statistic, “Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the Vietnamese immigrant population in the United States has risen significantly, increasing from about 231,000 in 1980 to nearly 1.3 million in 2012, making it the sixth largest foreign-born population in the United States.” (Rkasnuam and Batalova 1) Mr. Nguyen was also one of those Vietnamese who could no longer endure living in Vietnam. Therefore, when Mr. Nguyen’s cousin Eddies sent a photo of his American life to him, he expressed his aspiration of moving to the United States by describing how the Peking duck, steamed fish, fried rice with shrimp aroused his appetite. Mr. Nguyen and his family imagine a picture that they are still staying with each other and are tasting the foods happily. (Lam 83) Standing in Mr. Nguyen’s shoes, food implied his American dream and his attitude towards food reflected his expectation of living in the United

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