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Analysis Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

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The United States can be easily defined as one of the world’s biggest power house, with technological and medical advances like no other. However, America is anything but perfect, as demonstrated in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a tragic journey written by Anne Fadiman about Lia Lee, an epileptic girl who unfortunately surrenders to brain-death due to cultural dissimilarities and misunderstandings. After the getaway from the communist forces in Laos, the Hmong, including the Lees, became United States refugees. Although the Hmong escaped the dangers of their homeland, an overwhelming task of adapting to the American society consumes them. Fadiman presents the assimilation as an essential yet difficult part of a Hmong refugee through …show more content…

Instead of explaining how to cook the fish, the presenter retraces his steps, first discussing how to catch the fish, where it lives, how it looks like, the type of fish, etc. According to Fadiman, the Hmong culture believes “the world is full of things that may not seem to be connected but actually are; no event occurs in isolation; that you can miss a lot by sticking to the point; and that the story teller is likely to be rather long-winded” (Fadiman 24). With this mindset, the Hmong observes the big picture and overall progress. Instead of having a narrow focus, as most American do, the Hmong has a wide one, accounting every detail and component. It is evident that Fadiman strived to mirror this concept in her writing. Rather than presenting the reader with Lia’s medical history and condition right at the beginning, Fadiman retraces her steps, like the Hmong presenter, by starting with the birth of Lia. The first sentence states, “If …show more content…

As Fadiman explains, “Lia’s brain-death was a result of American medicine at its worst and best” (Fadiman 142). It is a no brainer that American has the necessary materials and supplies in order to maintain one’s well being; however, if not properly used or distributed, it make end someone’s life. For example, the medicine that could have helped Lia hurt her instead. Due to the Lee’s misunderstanding of Western medicine, they failed to give Lia her medicine multiple times. The doctors prescribe Lia with medication that might or might not help her; however, the lack of monitoring in Lia’s home disrupted that investigation, clouding the conclusion as to what medication helps Lia. Western medicine could have easily allowed Lia a healthy life, but the cultural differences and misunderstandings resulted in death for her. This paradox poses serious risk, especially in the act of assimilation. The Hmong has one solid foundation of how someone gets ill, the soul is lost, and how that person can get better, by gaining its soul back. The paradox of Western medicine, in which it can help and harm their family members, is very concerning to the Hmong culture, resulting in their lack to

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“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anna Fadiman tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with epilepsy, whose life could have been different if only her family was caught up in western medicine. This book reveals the tragic struggles between a doctor and patient because of lack of communication. When Lia was around three months old, her older sister Yer accidentally slammed a door and Lia had suddenly fallen into the floor. This is the first recorded time that Lia was experiencing an epileptic shock.

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