Nam Le- "Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice"

Through the narrator’s interactions with his own father, we are able to see the tensions between immigrants and their Westernized children.  I was reminded of the concept of code switching when the son hid evidence of his lifestyle—such as the bottles of alcohol, the cigarette burns on his table, and Linda—away from his father.  Unlike the article in which code switching was mentioned, I didn’t see this as an act of resistance; rather, this choice of action seemed to highlight the emotional distance that is commonly felt between Asian (and Asian American) children and their parents.  Though the father tried to show that he cared for his son by doing his dishes and asking him if he wanted food, sometimes the way the father cares can be misconstrued.  This is exemplified by the father making an ultimatum with the narrator’s mother in an attempt to get the narrator to come back home to him and when he beat the narrator for not following his study schedule.  I found it interesting that though “traditional” Asian parents seem to lack in emotion when it comes to their children, emotions still seem to be their biggest asset when it comes to getting their children to do what they want them to do.  If it’s not fear pushing a child to get good grades, then perhaps it is guilt or love driving a student to pursue a career they’re not entirely interesting in to make their parents’ sacrifice “worth it”.  Personally, I related some aspects of the narrator’s father with my own, in that both seemed to be short of temper earlier on in their lives before mellowing out in the later years.  I liked that the narrator asked his father for his story because it emphasizes the importance of understanding different generations through the lens of what they had to grow up with.  For example, I think I can understand my dad’s reluctance to part with his belongings even when they begin to clutter because I know that he didn’t have much growing up.