The Power of Language

"Show and Tell" is about Robert and his new fellow student Cao, a Vietnamese refugee. Through Cao's inability to speak English, Andrew Lam stresses the power of language and communication. He links the impact of language barrier to the inability of expressing oneself which leads to being judged by society without knowing the person or one's background. 

At the beginning Cao is presented as quite primitive, "like he just found out for the first time that he was wearing shoes" (25). In addition, he cannot defend himself when he is attacked by Billy because he does not know English, "so he just bit[es] his lip and blush[es]" (25) and ignores Billy's offensive comments. However, Cao uses drawing as a way of communication with Robert and when Robert realizes that Cao's drawing "was really, really good" (28), his impression of the refugee changes: he starts respecting Cao more. 

The turning point comes when Cao is confronted with the horrors of the Vietnamese war because of Billy's presentation (29). At first, he cannot control his emotions, but he soon realizes that Robert - who understands him - and his own drawings are his way to communicate his sufferings, his story, thus who he is: "So I went on. And he went on. I talked. He drew. We fell into a rhythm" (31). Cao is able to regain control over the situation, to make the others listen to him and to "Show and Tell" the trauma he went through as a refugee. Thus, Lam represents in Cao the power of communication and how language is a tool to not only process trauma, but also to set your status in society. 

All in all, Lam is able to show the hardships of immigrants who do not only have to struggle with the trauma of war, but also with the trauma of exile. Due to language barriers, refugees are faced with prejudices and judged by people. But Lam does not only show how powerful language and language skills can be, as he also shows how powerful it can be to express oneself in order to process trauma.

By Storai K.

Sly Fox

In "Close to the Bone" after David's funeral, Ethan describes a moment where, "a mangy fox stood staring at me, its tongue hanging out. It was neither afraid nor surprised. If anything, it had an expression of bemusement" (Lam 182). The fox is symbolic of David's personality and characteristics. His trickster nature is shown throughout the story. 

In the beginning, David taunts Ethan's father with breaking the bricks in class, and later Ethan's parents by showing support for Ethan's sexuality during a discussion at dinner. Over and again he seems to push the envelope on what is considered proper, while at the same time showing respect for the ancestral culture. It is through this sort of wily and unpredictable behavior that he inspires both Ethan and his father to challenge themselves in different ways. Ethan's father seems to struggle to find purpose until David gives him a means to channel the life he feels that has been lost. Through David he finds the son he wishes he had, and at the same time in some ways connects to his own son. Ethan is inspired to find his voice and break down walls by standing up to the oppression he feels has been inflicted on him. He openly confesses who he is and sees himself to be because of David's support. 

David's wry actions caused the family to break down barriers and forcibly reevaluate their relationships. The fox's appearance reflects the irony of what is, as well as the potential hopefulness of what could be.

By Jennifer V.

A Storm of Nation

As I traced a running theme of homosexuality in Andrew Lam's Birds of Paradise Lost, I considered the struggle of sexual identity as a representation of the struggle of developing a national identity and the ongoing storm that Vietnamese refugees experience. In "Close to the Bone", Ethan recounts the development of his sexual identity as a storm which his partner, William, served as a safe port (174). By illustrating two conjoined men wrapped in both the American and Vietnamese flag, I meshed images of sexual and national identity. Choosing mostly pencil to create my illustration, I imagined the minimal color as representation of the often black and white singular view that a person must be of one nationality and renounce another, or that a person of must be of only one sexual orientation. Combining both flags and a conjoined image of a homosexual couple pressed against a stormy sky symbolizes the struggles and complications of duality and biculturality. 

By Lauren S.

The Jaws of War

After digesting Lam’s short stories “Hunger” and “Birds of Paradise Lost,” I realize how much they reflect the capacity of mankind to face depravity and the ensuing struggle to avoid being engulfed by it. The stories portray their characters’ continued efforts to resist the sociological aftereffects of a war, though each story is driven by its protagonist’s psychological war against consumption.

In “Hunger,” Mr. Nguyen grapples with his past: having been forced to turn to the depravity of cannibalism, he is disgusted by the prospect of eating meat again. A physical reminder of the horror he unwillingly but eventually embraced, the texture of animal flesh is “abhorrent to his tongue and teeth” (80), reminiscent of his wife’s tragic demise at the hands of human hunger. Attached to his pain and guilt is a desperate need for his daughter, Easy-to-Love, to transcend the level of inhumanity to which he believes he has sunk. As he pleads for her to “Eat and be resilient” (80), he affixes meat with a degree of strength and the spirit to rise above their tragic circumstances; consequently, Easy-to-Love’s refusal to ingest it fuels Mr. Nguyen’s fear that she will be unable to move past the depravity and “‘grow up beautiful’” (91).

In “Birds of Paradise Lost,” however, consumption functions as a result of a different kind of volition. In the wake of his “oldest and dearest friend’s” self-immolation (99)—itself, a voluntary act of being consumed—Thang allows himself to embody consumption through addiction: “I imagined a cigarette smoldering between my lips…its smoky residue warming my scarred lungs” (100). He caves under the pressure of resisting the “hints of elegance” of a force that “drives our world” (110), the fire that lights the end of his cigarette and burns his homeland and feeds the fate of refugees. This force of consumption, which he claims “would not, in the end, devour me” (110), snakes its way through him after all, as it consumes his son and mixes him into the pot of American, “sophisticated, razor-tongued strangers” (105).

By Sandra H.

Karma Run

This drawing depicts a clock, a shoe, and the bottom of a show. The bottom right corner of the drawing is a mix of black and purple. In Vietnamese culture, black represents evil and purple represents sadness. I used these colors to represent the narrator’s conflicting feelings about the way he treated his uncle. In the story, “Step up and Whistle,” he took advantage of his uncle’s TS in a very evil way on multiple occasions. The shoes are a representation of him trying to run away from his past. He is unable to do so, which is why he has several pairs of used shoes, but still feels the guilt towards his uncle. The clock represents the passing of time, but also the remembrance of the past. This sketch also includes a quote outlined in blue. The blue represents hope, which the narrator feels towards his daughter who also has TS. The colors and images combined represent the narrator’s inner struggle with his feelings towards his uncle. There is guilt for the outcome of the war, but also for the poor treatment of his uncle. The footprints of the past will remain forever in the narrator’s mind and heart.

By Kristena R.

Meat and Guilt: Nguyen's Burden

My journal is meant to evoke the image of Atlas. In this case Atlas is representative of Mr. Nguyen from the short story "Hunger." He holds up a large pile of meat. In Greek myth, Atlas was punished for his rebellion by being made to hold up the earth. Similarly, Nguyen's new-found repulsion for meat, and his difficulties with food, can be seen as a form of karmic punishment for his "sins" on the boat (eating his wife). In Nguyen's case, his punishment is (somewhat) self-inflicted. He carries his guilt and shame around the way Atlas carries the earth. This guilt takes the form of his inability to eat meat, and is compounded by his inability to feed his daughter. The meat is imaged as much larger than Atlas-Nguyen to show how overwhelming this burden is for him.

By Abigail I.

To Temper the Flame

I believe that the eponymous story Birds of Paradise Lost answers the age old question of how one should react to trauma by presenting and challenging the ethics behind an extreme response to it; martyrdom. The narrator, Thang, initially views his friend Bac’s self-immolation as a brave and patriotic act, worthy of praise and imitation. However, after Thang’s son logically argues that Bac’s suicide more likely stemmed from defeatism or depression as opposed to righteous indignation, Thang begins to wonder how he should honor his past in a foreign setting where it no longer directly relates to his daily life. The answer to his question, however, emerges through a comparison between fire and one’s memories that illuminates the duality of deferring to one’s past. If one acknowledges and learns from her past, it can inspire her to do great things in the present and future. But, if one ignores his history and lets the past sway his logical reason, then he will inevitably be consumed by his uncontrolled passion. Essentially then, the juxtaposition of Bac’s death and Thang’s concluding resolution to continue living exemplifies both the destructive and constructive potential of trauma.

By Michael J.