The family lived by traditional Hmong, religious and cultural beliefs and practices. The believed in large families and Lia was the last of thirteen children. Each child saved for Lia was born via traditional Hmong values and this point factored in heavily to explain Lia epilepsy. The Hmong women, following birth, would bury the placenta or “jacket for the soul” believing this was crucial to death and rebirth. In Hmong culture, spirits and souls, and living and dying were intrinsically tied to religious beliefs and all must be appeased and satisfied to ensure a comfortable life.
She was most worried the intervening would change the story she was
Lia, unlike her older siblings, was born in the Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) and thus her placenta was incinerated. The placentas of her other siblings were buried under their hut where they lived before moving to America. The Hmong people believed that the most probable cause for illness was soul loss hence the reason of having
As she grew up in this cycle of moving to new places in order to evade trouble, she began to view her parents in a less positive light. Rather than be proud of her father’s ingenuity, she became somewhat angered at his foolish spending habits. While she still viewed life as pleasant most of the time, she especially hated the time when her father came home drunk, fearing his violent
She was afraid for her dad. She knew that if he got directly involved with the vampire business, he had a good chance that he would die, since he had absolutely no experience in fighting and he was
Her greatest fear in this struggles was the ability to lose control over the influences school versus home played in writing. She would always go back and second guess herself in making sure that her views were not conflicting with the other so much that it stood out, which would confuse her. She grew up learning that these conflicts of interest in political views should not happen. Min-Zhan Lu says “Despite my parents ' and teachers ' attempts to keep home and school discrete, the internal conflict between the two discourses continued whenever I read or wrote. Although I tried to suppress the voice of one discourse in the name of the other, having to speak aloud in the voice I had just silenced each time I crossed the boundary kept both voices active in my mind.
(Yarbrough 637), so she doesn't ask. What he's father did to her mother caused he to have no trust in her own husband. Their daughter also suffered as she “bunches over as she walks… her posture and the concentrated way she gazes down suggest that she's a girl who believes she has a problem” (Yarbrough 642). It is hinted that she might have been thinking about hearing gossip, which might be the gossip of the town about her family.
He was often overbearing and strict with many aspects in her life. For example, the narrator explains
For one, she became her own person throughout the course of this book. At first, she was dating the most popular person in school, Gordon, did not have a secure group of friends, and overall simply followed the others without opinions, or opinions that were important. Due to Lia, however, she made stronger bonds and had a voice that mattered to those around her regardless of Lia potentially demolishing her life. For example, if Lia or “Laurie” was not spotted being unloyal with Gordon in the beginning of the book, and later never made the attempt to harm the important characters like Jeff Rankin and Helen Tuttle, the thought would never provoke Laurie and Jeff to make any further effort in communication. In the passage, because Lia caused them to fall into the rocks, they learned more about each other.
The parent’s believed that at the incident where her sister slammed the door to their apartment, the sound frightened away her soul and thus leading to her condition. Rather than the parents seeing the illness for what it was, they viewed it from a spiritual point of view and thereby becoming equivocal and uncertain of the capability of the western medicine. In spite of the fact that they irregularly administered the prescribed dosage, they sort to treat Lia with shamanism, animal sacrifices, and their very own traditional herbal
Every day we are bombarded with ideas of how the human body should look- men need to be muscular and women should be fit and toned. In fact, these norms are taught at a very early age, and through various social institutions. It is especially evident in Disney movies, just take a look a Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, or Ariel in the Little Mermaid, children are constantly being subjected to these masculine and feminine ideals and it will continue throughout their life. Magazines will place photo-shopped models on their front covers, while radio stations promote testosterone boosters for men. Although these ideal body types are impossible to achieve, society still has the expectation that we should strive to be as physically attractive as possible
She had too much medicine and her body just gave way. But then we boiled the herbs and we washed her and her sweat stooped and she didn’t die” (180). Foua and Nao Kao continued to care for Lia like they were from the beginning. Foua has devoted her complete attention to Lia making sure that she will never be taken away by the police. And if anything Lia was a greater importance in the family
Rex and Rose Mary repeatedly neglected their children to accommodate their own needs. Jeannette awoke frightened to a homeless man lying on top of her. The man walked easily into the Walls home since the doors were not locked or even closed. Rex and Rose wanted to leave to doors and windows opened to let in fresh air not knowing what else it would allow in. After the attack the parents continued to leave the windows and doors open putting their needs before their children 's. Rex and Rose Mary were preoccupied with themselves to pay notice that there daughter was attacked and they could do something to reduce the chance of it happening again.
This perspective, whereas we could assume is Lia's personal choice to ignore the feeling's tied to Cassie, connects us into seeing the control that has overhauled Lia into the inability of owning the skill to see appropriate clear choice's. Equally explaining that her disease has fogged Lia's mental ability into making personal fitting decision's and left her with out of hand ones because of the strong over take that burden's one's mentality throughout the illness. Important to realize the phrase “when I was a real girl ...” Came to our attention more than once, this really stuck out in the novel for, the evidence it gives showing that Lia knows she's different, shes fully aware her life is changed as from when she's referring to the past and this expresses how the fact of her being “real” would be putting food in her body regularly, sleeping properly, and enjoying the family she has. However Lia is not real in her view.
The family would always ask “why us?” or “maybe it’s a curse” or “she was fine for years”, and the list would go on and on. (225) She didn’t feel like she belonged and her family
