‘The spirit catches you and you fall down’ was published in 2012 by essayist and reporter Anne Fadiman. This introductory book review analyzes the way in which different cultures perceive illnesses and diseases. It focuses on the story of the Lees a Hmong family, who moved to the United States and experiences difficulties with language, culture and biomedicine method of healing, which contradict to Hmong’s way of healing. The chapters describe the differences between the ways childbirth is conducted in Hmong society compared to the western society. As well as the struggle the Lees family has with the cultural differences in diagnoses and treatment of their ill daughter.
The author of this book is called Anne Fadiman. It is based on a story of a Hmong child known as Lia Lee who suffered from epilepsy. The demise of this condition shows the harm that can be contributed by absence of cross-cultural communication especially in the area of medicine. At the age of three months, the elder sister to Lia known as Yer banged a door which caused Lia to have the first seizure.
The book Witness, by Karen Hesse was a wonderful story about many different characters changing, because in 1924 the Klu Klux Klan known as the KKK, moved into a small town in Vermont. The KKKs are just a very Terrific, and was racist to a lot of people who just hate on many other races. This story surrounds 2 important character; Esther, and Leonora being on the KKK “target or hated list”, however those two weren’t alone. They faced these problems together, and they had each other when needed. A theme that shows up often in the book Witness is racism.
n Barbara Ehrenreich’s The Worst Years of Our Lives, she highlights a significant infection festering in American Culture: television as a main event, or only event in a day. As she says “you never see people watching tv”, and that happens because it truly isn’t entertaining. It substitutes for a life. The television has been pulling people into an allusion of a false reality and a seemingly boring life since its implementation. She essentially illustrates the negative impact television has on todays society.
Using Anne Fadiman’s book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down I have created a cultural assessment of the Hmong people and their experiences with the American healthcare system. This small Southeast Asian minority known as the Hmong began moving to the United States towards the end of the Vietnam War. This brought a whole new set of challenges for the healthcare providers of the United States due to their cultural beliefs and native practices which made it difficult to perform certain forms of medicine. Doctors and nurses had to find different ways to treat these patients without violating their cultural beliefs or upsetting them.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragic true story written by Anne Fadiman, who spent over five years in the middle of a fight between Hmong culture and American medicine. The book is about a young Hmong child named Lia Lee. At 3 months old she started showing signs of severe epilepsy. Her American doctors had a strict and rigorous treatment plan, but were baffled when the family refused to follow it because of their culture and beliefs. Anne Fadiman originally went to the Lee’s hometown of Merced California as a columnist writing an article on Hmong culture for Life Magazine, but soon gained a personal connection to the Lee family.
In the essay "Untouchables" by Jonathan Kozol, he reveals the harsh opinion society has toward the homeless in a blunt way. He exposes an attitude of hatred towards these members of society. Shockingly, the government and society treat the homeless members of humanity as vermin. It seems more important that the homeless are dirty, they hurt business, and that they exist than the fact that they are people who are part of society and with a little help could get back on their feet. Because of this attitude toward the homeless, it seems like the situation is just getting worse.
The main character of the book, Allison Mackenzie, came from a middle-class family that owned a home off Chestnut Street. Her mother, Constance, owned a shop in town called the Thrifty Corner Apparel Shoppe. Allison was born out of wedlock and her father was out of the picture. Constance was ashamed of this fact and hide her secret past from society. The situation surrounding Allison was an example of the time period’s denial of family dysfunction.
In the Elegiac Addict Angela Garcia argues that far from inducing recovery, medical and juridical understandings and approaches to addiction trap addicts into the painful past and moral dilemma, perpetuating the addiction and making relapse inevitable. Present medical definition treats addiction as a “Chronic health problem, not a moral failing or a social problem”, liberating the addicts from self-guilt and the social judgments based on morality. On the other hand, by emphasizing the chronicity, it produces the sense of hopelessness among the addicts and the belief that addiction is inevitably repetitive and endless. According to Alma, the woman author followed for part of her life, illustrates this point by pointing out that “the clinic didn’t
Maturing in life. At the beginning of life, people are innocent, with life not having a chance to tamper and corrupt them. At the end of life, they 've known loss and heartbreak and life has messed them up. But imagine if people were born all knowing and died as innocent as a baby.
In her book, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Barbara Ehrenreich asserts that “modern people, i.e., couch potatoes, do nothing that is ever shown on television” (22-24). That is an audacious statement. Is it reasonable to assume that anyone who watches television is indolent and does nothing with their life? Of course not. While anything in excess in not healthy, categorizing all modern people as "couch potatoes" is a harsh generalization that weakens Ehrenreich 's argument.
In the book, Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, the reader becomes emotionally involved with the lives all of the characters. The audience gets pulled into the dangerous life of card counting and learns about each character along the way. The main character, Kevin Lewis, stands out among the rest of the characters in the book due to his conflicting desires. It is apparent that Kevin struggles to find a balance between his responsibilities in the real world and a fantasy life in Vegas. He is in a constant battle between personal gain and the yearning for his father 's approval.
Authors use literary devices to help the reader understand the message or theme. Literary devices are a key hint as to what the author is trying to tell the reader instead of just flat out stating the lesson or message. Throughout "Live to Tell", "Refresh, Refresh", and "Man From the South" the author 's use suspense to show the emotions the characters are feeling. There is a lot of emotion portrayed throughout "Live to Tell" by Lisa Gardner. The author uses suspense to show that Evans mom Victoria is fearful of what he would do if she did something to make him agitated.
In the book Renegades by Marissa Meyer, many things happen throughout the book that many will find interesting. This story follows two main characters, Adrian Everhart and Nova Artino/Mclain. In this world, there are these people who are prodigies with superpowers that they either inherit or are born with. There is also a Council that is made of the best superheroes or Renegades, all around the city that this book takes place in and the son of the top two Council members is Adrian Everhart with their leadership skills and the ability to make whatever he draws come to life. There are also villains in this world of heroes called the Anarchists and within these villains is the niece of the formerly ruler of Gatlon City during the Age of Anarchy.
Lauren DeStefano said, “ 'dystopian, ' by definition, promises a darker story” (DeStefano). One may find this to be particularly true in Ursula Le Guin’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” when he is able to look past the happiness displayed proudly on the surface. Le Guin’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” employs dystopian elements because the story, like other dystopian works, warns about societies with trapped citizens, living in a supposedly perfect city, who fail to question the structure of their society.
