The First Part Last is a novel about this teenager named Bobby and how teenage pregnancy affects his life. The story goes from then to now every chapter and, and at the end of the book, the then and now meets up. Bobby Impregnates a teenage girl named Nia (his girlfriend). The story talks about how they make it through this rough time. Near the end, Nia starts to get eclipse, which girls have a chance to get when they are pregnant.
The poem “Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa is a deep poem that shows the aftereffects of war in modern society. The article called: “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Among Vietnam Veterans”, by Robinowitz and Walter Penk shows the cultural context we need to understand about soldiers after the Vietnam War. By analyzing the article and the poem together we will discover the full cultural context and meaning behind the poem. The message of the poem is that PTSD is a serious issue that has been ignored for far too long, and now is the time to consider those who fought for us.
In south sudan a civil war broke out that shut down refugee camps killed thousands and one of them killed by being tied to a tree and shot. The main character in the long walk to water by Linda Sue Park is a young boy named salva. Salva is a young boy that gets separated from his family and is picked at random to go start a life in the U.S. in his journey for safety he crosses through lion country, fast rivers, and the Akobo desert all with only the support of his uncle. Salva manages to overcome many dangerous animals, dangerous territories, and the lose of many loved ones through his journey to safety.
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,
In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, there is a constant struggle between individuals and their ability to shape their own identities. The play follows various characters that attempt to find the balance between dealing with hardships in life and their own personal desires. In contrast, “A Daily Joy to be Alive” by Jimmy Santiago Baca explores how individuals can strive to have control over their identities. External factors such as mental state, societal norms, and past behavior can limit an individual's ability to shape their own identity.
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.
How does one become a man? Have you ever wondered if you are truly a man? In the novel, “The First Part Last,” the main character, Bobby, wonders if he would ever become a man. Bobby is a sixteen year old teenager who was careless and impregnated another teen named Nia. Bobby decides to raise the baby himself after the mother goes into an irreversible vegetative coma.
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
On September 17, 1951, Cassandra Peterson was born. Although her family eventually relocated to Randolph, Kansas, she was born in Manhattan, Kansas. Prior to Turtle Creek Reservoir flooding the Kansas Randolph region, she was raised there. She attended General William J. Palmer High School when the family relocated to Colorado Springs. She graduated from High School in 1969 and during the course of her education, she had her mother, who owned a costume shop, make whatever outfits she desired in her size, and wore them to school.
This Is Where It Ends is a fictional book written by Marieke Nijkamp, which describes a fateful shooting at Opportunity High. The book is told through 4 students' perspectives and the horror that they go through in just 54 minutes. Not only does it explore the themes of courage, grief, and resilience, but it also looks through the eyes of four distinct characters that tell a tale that not only represents the reality of school violence but also examines the complex web of human emotions and reactions in fateful times. It can be described as a chilling and poignant book that is set against the backdrop of a high school being taken hostage by a shooter in a terror of a situation that is all too familiar with the society we live in today. The switching
Ultimately, the essential life events that define humanity are birth, marriage, death, loss, and war. Joy Harjo’s poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” is a powerful reflection on the significance of everyday moments and the role of the kitchen table in our lives, including growth, childhood, and remembrance. The responsibility of children, remembrance of loved ones, and the dreams of one’s child correlate to the significance of life and humanity. The kitchen table represents what we go through and connects all areas of life, representing human
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
No matter what situation someone is in, there is always a way to fix it. There are many literary devices/themes used in literature and films. They have many differences and similarities. In literature, the author will use language to describe the characters. On the other hand, in films, the actions and pictures will show how the character is as a person.
Joy Harjo’s poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” implants an impression of the world as a kitchen table: “The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.” (1). As I interpreted the poem, I perceived it as a brief analysis of life. Harjo elaborates life as one protracted feast, and our life ends when we eat the concluding bite of our meal: “Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.”
