Journal #16: Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice

In this short story, a young man, who is a writer, is visited by his father, while he is approaching the deadline for his upcoming story. The young man struggles to figure out what he wishes to write his story on, but in the end decides to write about his father’s time in the war and in Vietnam. All throughout the story, we see the tension between the narrator and his father, mainly rooted in their cultural differences. The narrator’s father was a soldier in the army and was very harsh with his son, which ultimately led to his son leaving and the split between him and his wife. The narrator, the son, after straying from a job that he hated, that his father wanted for him, now lives as a struggling writer with a caucasian girlfriend, one that implies his father would not approve of.

There are a lot of patterns of culture clashes between the father and son that was discussed several times in previous readings before. There is the recurring pattern of parents seeking a better life for their children and their children growing up in a hybridized version of their culture that is often not good enough for their parents, thus resulting in tension. Just like the Laotian parents who escaped imprisonment and war, the narrator’s family did the same. One of the key differences is that the narrator is a male and he is able to do things such as stray far from the family without being punished. The Laotian girls, who have the same background as that of the narrator, are much more constricted and expected to be more obedient, rather than independent. This short story reflects the dynamic amongst immigrant parents and their children who grew up in a culture different from theirs.

This story also touches on how “diversity” or “ethnic stories” are commodified. The narrator who is struggling to figure out what he should write has been told by many people that “ethnic stories” sell. The exploitation of one’s history and culture at the expense of money, is something that is seen in multiple cultures. For example, we saw something similar with henna tattoos, an important part of Indian culture, being commodified and sold to those who are not a part of that culture or don’t even understand it’s significance. The narrator’s father makes a note that the readers will read about it and be amused, but will never truly remember what had happened. That is why in the end he ends up lighting his son’s story on fire.