The True Wealth In Grandma's Tales

Since the beginning of time, humans have relied on storytelling as a way to pass wisdom on to future generations. These tales of life lessons are much more valuable than any form of monetary inheritance. Andrew Lam perfectly portrays the true wealth that storytellers and their stories possess through his short story, “Grandma’s Tales”. The narrator’s Grandmother passes away, leaving him unsure how to plan a proper Vietnamese funeral. Rather than disrespecting their traditions and heritage, he and his sister decide to put her on ice while they wait for the return of their parents. Before the parents can return, Grandma walks out of the freezer, reborn. Grandma is much younger and a very different person, she appears to be much younger “[with]

However, her wealth is physically portrayed by the jewels that she flaunts in order to gain their entrance into the high-class soiree. Her true wealth is not as easily accessed as the jewels she wears due to the barriers that keep her from telling her stories. The physical barrier that confines her is portrayed by the image of the “highrise shining like [a glass cage]” (464). This image directly correlates to her being “confined to the second floor of [their] big Victorian home” due to her failing health (461). This elevation literally represents her physical disconnection from the rest of the world. Not only is she distant from the current world around her, there is her separation from Vietnam because she “lost everything [she] owned when [she] left her beautiful country behind” (463). *Another glass cage that separates Grandma from the rest of the world is her lack of ability to communicate because “she speaks no English [and] only a little French” (461). These barriers that confine her and confine her grandson in many ways as well *good chance to elaborate a little more, I feel like this is a huge deal. Grandma is able to escape all of these cages by telling her stories so the narrator decides to begin telling his own stories in order to break down the barriers that confine

In many ways, the narrator feels as though he is on the outskirts of his own life, just as his Grandma felt in her later life. He feels trapped by his sexuality since “[Grandma] was the only person who knew [he is] bisexual” (462). He is not yet open about his sexuality because he is afraid of being an outcast in his culture and religion. Another factor that makes him feel stuck is the fact that his "English is not all that good but [his] Vietnamese sucks" (462). He is trapped somewhere in the middle, like a gem confined to a glass cage. In the story that he tells about his Grandma's rebirth, he projects his own insecurities onto his Grandmother. He does this in the way he portrays her through this alternate. The narrator is jealous that his Grandma is able to speak perfect English where he struggled through “junior high school, high school and all those damn ESL classes” and still doesn’t speak English well, but “Grandma just got it down cold because she was reborn” (462). When they attend the party together, Grandma walks in and is immediately embraced as the center of attention; everyone cares to actually listen to her and hear her stories. The partygoers love Grandma's “stories and songs” (463). These tales of her life are her social currency, a commodity the narrator chooses to utilize to