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The Spirit Catches

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In her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes the story of the Lee family and their settlement process in the United Sates. When Laos fell to the communists, the Lees were among the thousands of Hmong who fled the country. They arrived in the U.S. with their seven children and settled in the town Merced. The Lees like many refugees received many forms of federally funded public benefits including food stamps, housing, clothing, employment services, medical care, and other necessary services. The Lees took advantage of these benefits because they were in need for medical aid for their youngest daughter, Lia Lee. When Lia was three months, she was administered into the hospital and diagnosed with epilepsy. Due …show more content…

-However: Studies have shown that despite of their low income levels Mexicans immigrants hardly ever utilize welfare services. Although they might extensively use medical services because of their low income households and avoid getting medical help which ultimately leads to progressed and worst conditions, they actually pay a substantial portion of the services out of pocket. They pay 25 billion in taxes and gain no benefit (Leighton Ku article 33).
• Paragraph 5: Some Americans citizens do not accept illegal immigration because they argue that Mexicans are criminals.
-However: A range of studies show there is no evidence immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans. In fact, first-generation immigrants are inclined to lower crime rates than native-born Americans because they have a greater impact of consequences so then are more cautious when it comes to getting tangled up with the law . Info in article, “Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Conflicted

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The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Book Report

229 Words | 1 Pages

“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anna Fadiman tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with epilepsy, whose life could have been different if only her family was caught up in western medicine. This book reveals the tragic struggles between a doctor and patient because of lack of communication. When Lia was around three months old, her older sister Yer accidentally slammed a door and Lia had suddenly fallen into the floor. This is the first recorded time that Lia was experiencing an epileptic shock.

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Summary Of Eat Turkey, Become American By Marie Myung-Ok Lee

958 Words | 4 Pages

Families serve as children's principal settings for cultural and racial transmission, serving as their primary crucible for socialization, “What it all comes down to is that the family is the unit of cultural preservation. This is true for all families, but for immigrants, it is particularly bittersweet; to do one thing means something else is excluded” (Lee). Lee says that she felt lost at times for not knowing about her family's history before migrating to the United States, "Because our parents never spoke about Korea, we felt as if we’d landed in the middle of the Iron Range of Minnesota via spaceship" (Lee), and for not practicing the culture of their country of origin, “They (author’s parents) insisted that we were not Koreans or even Korean-Americans, but Americans”

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Summary Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

905 Words | 4 Pages

The Hmong became frustrated with the American medicine as seen when the author says that it was typically Hmong for patients to appear passively obedient only to later ignore everything they had supposedly assented to after they left the hospital. It therefore stressed the doctors who considered the Hmong as the most difficult patients. This was well brought out by a doctor who said that the only easy way to treat the Hmong people was with a bullet in their head known as “high velocity transcortical lead therapy” (63). Lia was equally difficult to the point that nurses would pray she is not admitted any time she fell epileptic. The uncooperative nature of the Lees made Lia be taken away from them

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Give Specific Examples Of Hmong Values

1302 Words | 6 Pages

The Lee’s were horrified with the side effects of the medications that disrupted her character. Thus leading to the doctors thinking the Lee’s were non-compliant with her medical regime. This, however, was clearly not the issue as the Hmong cherished and loved their children so deeply. They only had diverse beliefs and

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Analysis Of Anne Fadiman's Book 'The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down'

1617 Words | 7 Pages

In Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, two cultures clash with each other in the struggle to save Lia Lee, a Hmong child refugee with severe epilepsy. Although Lee and her family live in the United States, and thus receive medical care from Westerners, her family believes that Lee’s condition is sacred and special. The following miscommunications, both culturally and lingually, between the American doctors and the Lee family leave Lia Lee in comatose at the end of the book. However, Lia Lee could have been saved if the Lee’s had a better understanding of the American doctors’ intentions, and the American doctors understood the Hmong culture. Essentially, the tragedy of Lia Lee can be attributed to the clash of American and Hmong cultures at both the surface and sub-surface level.

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Hmong Parallelism

857 Words | 4 Pages

Lia’s parents endured great mental suffering from taking care of Lia 24/7 and the Hmong had to witness their own men being taken away to fight in war, never to return. Continuing with comparison, the plight of the American doctors is as difficult as the Hmong at points. Some of the doctors did have their varying opinions, but most really just wanted to feel that they did their job to the fullest extent. Many hours and thousands of dollars were spent on Lia and her condition. One could say that Fadiman does have bias towards the Hmong, but if she had chosen to completely side with them, she wouldn’t have mentioned the third element of suffering: the doctors who wanted to better a

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Analysis Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

1196 Words | 5 Pages

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

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Hmong Immigration

1987 Words | 8 Pages

Many immigrants have an extremely difficult time migrating to different parts of the world due to cultural differences, language barriers, and homesickness. Nowadays, there are translators and help available for those that are migrating from different countries. However, what if someone had migrated to the United States and barely had any of that support? The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is an incredibly touching book speaking of the struggle of the Hmong immigrants and the walls that were built between them and Americans, particularly the American doctors and medical system. The book focuses on a particular child, Lia Lee, and her family - specifically her parents, Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee.

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555 Words | 3 Pages

The American soldiers brought home Korean brides, arranged adoption of war orphans and sponsored students to come to the U.S. About 6,000 Students, 6,500 Brides, and 6,300 Adopted children arrived between the years of 1951 to 1954. This is just the beginning of how many have immigrated here. More than 100,000 adopted children and 100,000 brides for Americans, have immigrated here since than the Korean War. (Chang, Lai, Arguelles, 2003)

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Not only do immigrants cost America financially, but they also need housing, education, healthcare, and jobs which all have an individual impact from immigrants. Many of these issues are covered using tax payer dollars and then the overwhelming population due to this growth in immigrants will have to be addressed in each individual area or city. Some of these issues are fire stations and police officers to accommodate the larger populations, hiring enough teachers to educate the growing rate of children enrolled in the public schools, or providing welfare benefits such as food stamps or Medicaid to immigrants who are mostly of low-income

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