Trauma's Legacy In The Refugees By Viet Thanh Nguyen

Korina Yee 4th block Trauma’s Legacy In the book The Refugees by Viet Thanh NguyenNgyuen, a short story collection, the short story chapter titled “Black-Eyed Women” is about the narrator, a first-generation immigrant daughter, who is a ghostwriter, writing stories for those who survived what should have killed them and witnessed her brother’s death while immigrating to the U.S. The short storyThe chapter “War Years” is about a mother whose trauma affected how she acts present-day with a son who is ashamed of her actions. These two chapters exhibit how the Vietnam War was the cause of the way these characters act present-day and how they overcame it by gaining acceptance and changing their routines. While the daughter in “Black-Eyed Women” and the mother

In “War Years”, the narrator adopts an Americanized perspective while the mother has a more traditional mindset. The narrator introduces his mother as someone who he is ashamed of because of the way she acts while living in the U.S., dealing with money, and how she views the world. His family owns the New Saigon Market, which sells staples and spices from Vietnam like “catfish with a glint of light in their eyes, to shoestrings of chewy tripe and packets of chicken hearts, small and tender as button mushrooms” (50). The narrator is humiliated by the products for which Americans would call nasty and gross. He asks his mother, “Can't we just sell TV dinners?” (50), which reflects his desire to try to fit in the American culture. He also doesn’t understand why his mother won’t give donations to Ms. Hoa to help fight the communists. He “was outraged, for Mrs Hoa’s appearance proves the war was not over” (53). He thinks they should donate because President Reagen said so and because of what he heard from Newsweekly. This shows how the narrator trusts American sources rather than his own