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Hmong cultures and how they differ from american culture
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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 the conflicting views that arose between Western and Eastern beliefs on providing Lia medical aid. 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. When the Lee’s fourteenth child, Lia, was three months, her older sister slammed the front door of the apartment and Lia fainted. Her parents Nao Kao and Foua Lee believed that the noise frightened Lia’s soul to flee from her body and became lost which they associated with qaug dab peg: “the spirit catches you and you fall down”.
‘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.
"Crossing the Swamp," a poem by Mary Oliver, confesses a struggle through "pathless, seamless, peerless mud" to a triumphant solitary victory in a "breathing palace of leaves. " Oliver's affair with the "black, slack earthsoup" is demonstrated as she faces her long coming combat against herself. Throughout this free verse poem, the wild spirit of the author is sensed in this flexible writing style. While Oliver's indecisiveness is obvious throughout the text, it is physically obvious in the shape of the poem itself.
Imagine being captured and trapped in a camp, in North Vietnam, for six years filled with days of brutal torture and agonizing boredom. In Leo Thorsness’s novel, Surviving Hell, Thorsness and his fellow soldiers found a way to not only survive, but to thrive. Through numerous events and experiences, the soldiers survived by utilizing any means possible, both mentally and physically. It was their hope and optimism that kept them going. This can be seen when Thorsness plots his walk home.
The medical field in relation to varied cultural beliefs and traditions is something that is important to many, yet rarely talked about by almost all individuals. In other words, the cultural clashes created in medicalization is under looked by a multitude individuals. This is because many do not experience the hardships first hand. For that reason, the thought of difficulties within treatments of health issues or illnesses does not cross some individual’s minds. Nonetheless, each group of people is unique, in addition to, how they perceive the medical world.
“Today’s Demon: Common Scents” Lynda Barry represents that being an individual and not conforming to societies idea of perfection is better than pretending to be someone she is not. “Common Scents” tells of a young girl, N’ako who notices the specific smell in each house; although, she is told her house has a foul smell she states that should prefer that smell because it represents her own identity. The message presented throughout the story is first shown when the young girl notices a distinct smell that is unique to each home she enters, then again when she realizes the lady who sprays air freshener in her home does this to reach an image of perfection, and finally, during a conversation with her grandmother she decides that there was no
Short Analysis Paper In the book, “Parting at the Crossroads: The Development of Health Insurance in Canada and the United States”, Antonia Maioni will examine the healthcare system, more importantly, health insurance plan in Canada, and U.S. Although Canada or the United States of America are neighboring countries, they have developed different forms of health insurance. In this paper, it will compare and contrast the historical methodology of the upbringing of the health insurance services in both Canada and the United States of America. It will further analyze the author’s perspective of divergences, and misidentification, between two different countries.
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.
Lucas Hahn Mr. Rodriguez Academic Lit. 15 June, 2023 The Cellar Analysis Throughout Lucas Hahn's short story The Cellar, the author explores the limits of human endurance both mentally and physically. The author portrays the mental limits of humans when we look at the character Ryan. Ryan at the beginning of the story was just a normal teenager, but at the end of the book he turned into a murderer.
Hope is a powerful thing; more powerful than death itself. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is about a jewish boy who is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie doubted his faith to survive but had others to lean on during the hardship. Elie had the support of others as a sense of hope to survive the long, cold nights, with little food and water.
Before you suffocate your own fool self by Danielle Evans is written as a set of short stories which cover multiple social issues. These short stories often have a main character who has come upon hardship or are having a coming of age moment within their lives. During these stories the main character is having an internal struggle with rationality and logic vs. raw emotion and outside influence. The main characters are usually intelligent and self-aware yet they still knowingly make irresponsible decisions which are not in their best interest. These decisions are usually because they are at a crossroads or breaking point where they no longer can accept things for what they are.
A relationship between a father and a son is a sacred bond, one created at birth and strengthened over time. This paternal relationship is core to the value of family, a likewise bond of faith and trust. Such bonds are tested during times of hardship and pain, seen most clearly during times of war. During the events of World War II, and the gruesome events of the Holocaust, this truth was never more true. Through works such as the memoir Night, by survivor Elie Wiesel, and the artistry of the 1997 film Life is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni, these times of hardships are kept alive in common memory.
“...these days had never been as beautiful as these… each day a golden surprise” (2-4). In the short story “The Flowers”, surprise is the element that Alice Walker uses to portray the meaning. IT is at the heart of the meaning which is driven forward by imagery, setting, and diction. Walker takes her past experiences and uses them in her writings to make her story stronger.
On September 11, 2001, tragedy struck the city of New York. On that fateful day, two airplanes were hijacked by terrorists and flew straight into the twin towers. Each tower fell completely to the ground, taking thousands of lives with it and injuring thousands more. Not only did that day leave thousands of families without their loved ones, it also left an entire city and an entire country to deal with the aftermath of the destruction. Poet, Nancy Mercado, worries that one day people will forget that heartbreaking day.
