Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Racism during the 1950s
African american racism in the early 1950s
Racism during the 1950s
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down, Anne Fadiman reflected on ways in which cultural dissonance can have detrimental consequences for those who are caught in the midst of two cultures. In this influential story, the cultural and language barriers between Lia Lee’s family and her doctors caused Lia’s life to be negatively impacted due to improper diagnosis and treatment. The Lees preferred traditional and spiritual treatment that clearly differed from the doctors’ Westernized treatment. Through a constant battle between proper treatment and the Lee parent’s compliance, this caused Lia to live in a persistent vegetative state for the majority of her life. The language barrier that the Lee’s faced at Merced hospital was discouraging,
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson is an Indigenous mythology-based story that follows sixteen-year-old Jared as he struggles with his powers, relationships and overall life. The theme of family, specifically the decisions and roles of Jared's family, significantly affects his personal growth. More particularly from the actions of Maggie Moody, Phil Martin and Nana Sophia. Maggie Moody, Jared's mother, affects Jared's morals and how he feels about violence, Phil Martin, Jared's father, affects Jared’s emotional maturity, and Nana Sophia embodies the feelings resulting from the abandonment of a family member. Maggie's violent approach to life has desensitized Jared to violence, making him less emotionally vulnerable since violence requires a lack of empathy.
Have you ever thought about how difficult it might be to go into a different country knowing absolutely nothing, not even language, and something horrific happened to you or anyone in your family? Don’t you think you would feel so powerless, so helpless, so clueless? This happens commonly and it has never had any attention brought to it, at least not until 1998. Anne Fadiman wrote a book entitled, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This demonstrated a collision of two complete opposite cultures, but they both have the same goal to help the child get better.
The book I read was People of the Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau. The book is about all the people of Ember getting to this village that got out of a depression a few years ago and they are finally back up on their feet. Some of the people of Sparks don't like that the council people let the Emberties just settle in their village. The book is mostly about how the Emberties struggle to adapt and how they come to peace with the people of Spark. The narrator is someone from outside the story, so the point of view is third person.
Decisions do not change your chance. In Night, a Memior written by Ellie Wiesel in 1958, a young boy by the name Ellie Wiesel suffers through the Holocaust with his father Shlomo Wiesel. Ellie Wiesel first experiences the Nazi party after being evacuated from his house and put in a ghetto. At this time Jewish people did not know the motive of the Nazi party. After being in the ghetto for a few months Ellie, his father, his mother, and sister where forcefully taken from their home and put in concentration camps.
Although often used interchangeably, disease and illness differ fundamentally in their meanings and implications. Disease is the commonly thought of concept in which a person suffers due to a physiological or psychological ailment, while illness refers to a culmination of physical, emotional and social suffering of a person. Disease is perceived as the phenomena that affects an organism, while illness affects not only the patient but also their loved ones and community. This distinction is vividly apparent in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, in which Anne Fadiman relays the approaches to a Hmong child named Lia’s epilepsy by her family and her doctors as well as the tumultuous interaction between these caregivers. It is interesting to understand how Hmong culture and a doctor’s
Anne Fadiman’s novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, documents the life of the Lees, Hmong refugees who live in California. Their daughter Lia has a seizure which they diagnosed as qaug dab peg, “the spirit catches you and you fall down”. These seizure cause her to become vegetated for the rest of her life. Her parents believed that her seizures happened because her soul had fled her body.
In the book “The Detour” we see a girl named Olivia Flynn who is a famous book author gets kidnapped and barely escapes with her life, Olivia managages to slash her captors neck and run away from the house. The story starts with Olivia getting kidnapped after crashing her car. She is shoved into a basement and is fed very rarely. She then tries to escape by trying to stab her captor but fails. She then tries again by tricking one of her captors into coming close to her then stabbing him and this time succeeds in escaping.
Jacqueline’s family had the greatest influence on her identity so far. Jaqueline’s parents have impacted her to see different perspectives on how people perceive her race. After being away from Ohio for a long time, Jaqueline’s father comes to bring them back home as she explains, “This fight is over for now Tomorrow we will travel as a family back to Columbus Ohio Hope and Dell fighting for a place on my fathers lap Greenville with its separate ways growing small behind us” (Woodson 35). Fights between Jaqueline’s mother and father resulted in her moving between places where she experienced very different things and went through many different feelings.
The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures by Anne Fadiman illuminates the dilemmas, as well as barriers, persons of various cultural backgrounds can encounter daily, specifically when residing in a foreign habitation of different practices, perspectives and beliefs. This book highlights the difficulties one family must face during a clash between Hmong family cultural beliefs and western medicine. Fadiman (1997) brings our attention to these harsh realties that one can encounter when persons are unintentionally culturally incompetent through sharing the story of the Lia Lee and her parents, Nao Kao and Foua, who look for guidance from western doctors to assist their spiritual
The term “melting pot” has been used since the early 1900s, and it means a place where people, ideas, theories, cultures, etc. are mixed together. Although this may seem like a harmless thing, the idea that one must give up part of their culture to obtain parts of a new one undermines the importance of cultures in one’s life. In chapter 14 “The Melting Pot” of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman shows the challenges and hardships that Hmong immigrants faced when immigrating to America to show the power that an environment has on a person’s connection to their culture, and the impact that people have on the culture of the society they are entering Fadamin provides examples of the action of Americans towards to Hmong people
The past is unchangeable, however what one chooses to do with their future determines their legacy. In the novel Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, the protagonist, Codi struggles to overcome her past experiences as she returns to her home town. Through Codi’s actions the question arises, “Does one’s past dictate their future?” Collectively cultures are focused on the present. They view the past as unalterable such as mourning the loss of someone will not bring them back to life.
“We have to help him!” Todd yelled.” This is what Todd said in “The Race,” by Heather Klassen. Todd is desired to help others and make everyone happy. He does this by going back and helping a little boy and sacrifice his win, he felt bad for the boy and wanted to help.
In the textbook Let's Talk written by Andrea Lunsford, new ideas and habits are introduced that will help people learn how to communicate better and interact with others. The first four chapters revealed concepts that were used by the authors of the following readings: "Arranging a Marriage in India," "Your Smartphone is making you stupid," and "Small Change". The concept that influenced the understanding of “Arranging a Marriage in India” is to get to know people different from you. Next, the concept that influenced the understanding in “Your Smartphone is making you stupid” is to research your views. Lastly, the concept that increased understanding of “Small Change” was to listen when people express their views.
Self-identity is defined as the recognition of one's potential and qualities as an individual, especially in relation to social context. In other words, self-understanding. Finding self-identity is more more difficult for some people than others. In the autobiography Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker, the author reflects on her identity as a mixed raced individual which is illustrated through Walker’s reflections. People define themselves in many different ways.