Throughout United States history, success has been achieved through the exploitation of the lower class by the more dominant higher class. The lower class is used as cheap labor force, working terrible conditions which can comprise of dangerous substance exposure and the potential to lose limbs or even ones’ life. Immigrants are usually thrown in this situation due to lack of money and a language barrier. Commonly, like in Federico’s ghost, immigrants are put to work doing farm work, which is comprised of back breaking work and long hours in the beating sun. The author of Federico’s Ghost is Martin Espada, a Latino man born in New York.
The spirit catches you and you fall down by Annie Fadiman is a story about Hmong girl named Lia Lee, who is epileptic. Lia Lee suffered from seizures and eventually becomes vegetative for the rest of her life. The story is about a series of episodes of miscommunication, misinterpretations, disagreements between Lia’s parents and the medical team who is treating her. According to the Hmong culture they referred to the condition as the “quag dag peg,” which means the spirit catches you and you fall down (Fadiman, 2012). It first happened when Lia Lee’s elder sister slammed Lia with the door, which caused Lia to have a shocking reaction by jerking and frightening a “dab” (spirit) away (Fadiman, 2012).
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman introduces the reader to the Hmong culture and to the Lee’s family experience with western medicine. Throughout the book it talks of the past interactions of the Hmong and Americans, showing reasoning why the Hmong already mistrust Americans and western medicine. Following World War II, the Hmong culture was rejected and ridiculed by the Chinese for not assimilating with their culture, causing many to move to the U.S. Upon arrival, they were still ridiculed, harassed, and violated. In the Hmong’s eyes, they deserved respect and welfare for their sacrifices in the war.
Darien Wellman Latin American History Dr. Nadel November 1, 2014 Ramsey, Kate. The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. In the book The Spirits and the Law, author Kate Ramsey showed vodou history in relation to Haitian law.
The 1854 cholera outbreak was potentially one of the worst epidemics London has seen in its recent history, having eliminated around seven hundred people in just two weeks. In book The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson tells a thought-provoking tale about two different men who approached the spread of a microscopic bacterium in a growing urban city, and how their actions had changed the world. This particular cholera outbreak that swept through Broad Street in Soho district of London in 1854 led to the invention of modern life because it ultimately resulted in the transition from superstition to medical and scientific reasoning, the advances in modern epidemiology and the refurbishment of city infrastructures. John Snow’s role in the combat against the cholera outbreak brought medical and scientific reasoning into light. In the past, people widely believed in superstitions such as the
The arguments between the Federalist and Massachusetts Anti-Federalist caused by Federalist paper #84 would have been very difficult to resolve without modifications to the items that were to be included in the Constitution like the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights were considered to be relevant and deleterious to the Constitution by Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who stated in the essay Federalist Paper #84 that the Bill of Rights is “...not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous.” In addition Hamilton pointed out that many natural rights, like the right to redress grievances, were already implied in the body of the Constitution, therefore no further listing was necessary. However, Anti-Federalist counteracted
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
The Spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman presents a case study of a young Hmong girl, Lia, and her journey with Epilepsy in America. Lia at the age of three months began to seize, the family had diagnosed her with qug dab peg which also means the spirit catches you and you fall down (Fadiman 1997:20). However medical doctors had diagnosed her epilepsy (Fadiman 1997:28). Throughout the book she describes the history of the Hmong people, from their displacement in Laos, to their refugee life and Thailand and finally the journey some of the Hmong took to live in America. The book’s main theme is on the medical response to Lia’s disease, and how this clash between
Adding in details to a story or a book can grab the reader's attention and make them want to continue reading and this is what Gennifer Choldenko did with this
I feel Mike Hale’s intentions with “Consigning Reality to Ghost,” was to inform the average cable viewer that paranormal investigation shows are fake and a waste of time. The average cable viewer is seen as the intended audience, because Hale writes “viewers are free to make up their own minds, as they always have been.” (Hale) Furthermore, Hale is hinting to the reader (average cable viewer) that they can choose to agree or disagree with his opinion. Hale simply despises paranormal reality shows and believes they are staged, for popularity, and just a fad.
The Graveyard Book Theme The theme of the text, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is that fate and free will are apart of life and we need to embrace them. Neil Gaiman weaves this throughout his novel by showing how Bod is destined to fight the Jacks. He somehow gets lead to the graveyard where he meets people like Mr. and Mrs. Owens that take care of him. Thousands of years ago someone predicted Bod would defeat the Jacks.
There are many motifs that can be analyzed in ghost literature and folklore, though one that is ever present throughout the beginning of the telling of ghost stories is the motif of the suicide ghost. This ghost manifests after the untimely demise of an individual who takes their own life. This motif is intriguing, because of its complex nature and the fact that this motif persists through time, as it is seen in early ghost stories to the most recent accounts of ghosts. The suicide victim is often seen as returning as a ghost, because of the idea that these victims have unfinished business and internal turmoil. The suicide ghost motif persists because of the fascination of the premature death, along with the idea of understanding the internal
All of which helped tremendously with becoming a more precise writer and developing my identity as a writer. In the beginning of this course we worked with different readings that were intended to challenge us intellectully. Readings such as “To see your story clearly, start by pulling the wool over your own eyes” which is found the New York Times and “All Writing is Autobiography” by Donald M. Murray where readings that were meant to be challenging yet unfamiliar to us as well. This concept helped me greatly because it proved that I can be a flexible reader.
The collection of short stories “Ashputtle or The Mother’s Ghost: three versions of one story” has been taken from the book American Ghosts and Old World Wonders written by the Canadian feminist writer Angela Carter in 1987. Carter, known for her use of irony when writing her feminist stories so as to criticise the patriarchal society, confessed some years ago her interest in rewriting fairytales “I don’t mind being called a spell-binder. Telling stories is a perfectly honourable thing to do ... I do find imagery of fairytales very seductive and capable of innumerable interpretations” (Haffenden, 1985: 82). By making this statement, the writer clarifies her interest in retelling old fairytales using their plot to create a new story.
Name : Chhon Phalla Room : Nokor Bachay (301) Supernatural Beliefs Cross-culturally For as long time age’s, we have been fascinated with the idea of other worlds and other creatures that are somehow 'supernatural'. All around us is the physical world and the reality of that world is something we deal with on a daily basis. But since the dawn of man we have been telling stories of something else, something 'other', which might take the form of ghosts, of demons, of aliens or of elves.
