In the short stories "Saving Sourdi" and "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This" characters face challenges due to their family's background. Choose specific examples of this, explain how they enhance the plot, and relate the examples to the author's background. Be sure to add textual evidence to support your assertions.
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In Saving Sourdi, Nea’s family flees form Cambodia to America. Nea says “When we moved to South Dakota, I thought we’d find the real America, the one where we were supposed to be, not the hot and sweaty America…” The promise of a better life is the shining light of hope for most immigrants. Ma moves her family to America after she has lost everything in the war. Although America is not the war torn country they came from, the family is still a long way away from iconic American Dream with a house and white picket fence. In coming to America, Nea expects much from this land of the free–an American dream. The story’s conflict surfaces in the tension between fantasy and reality. Nea wrestles against realism, stabbing its men, its ugliness, its resistance to idealism. Arriving in South Dakota, Nea remarks how she “thought [they’d] find the real America,” that is, “the life [they] deserved.” Instead, she finds drunken men, angry boys, and loud music. Life’s stark realities and ugly truths disillusion her. Chai initially expresses Nea’s frustrations when a drunken man calls Sourdi his “China doll,” enrages Nea. So she stabs him. This is a stark contrast to what many immigrants believe is the American dream. The author, May-Lee Chai originated from China and weaves her Asian heritage into the story. She may also have experienced discrimination due to her background, though she does not write personally about it.
ReplyDeleteIn "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This," by Achy Obejas, the family goes through many struggles because they are of Cuban dissent. In the begining of the story, the mother and father are questioned by an immigration officer while the daughter sits, "across the room, more bored and exhausted, (224)" out of the process. Obejas was born in Cuba and immigated to America, and knows how it feels to be an immigrant sitting and waiting for their acceptance into American culture and customs hoping for a better life, the American dream. As the daughter tells her story and how she adapts to America while finding herself, we see the "out of the process" reocurring as she assimilates into American culture and develops her life in her own way, separate from her parents. Her Cuban identity also remains close to her and her family, as we see with the sweater from Cuba she wore to America and how it comforts her while her parents go through interragation. Her father never got a television because it was, "cumbersome to be moved when we go back to Cuba (227)." Her father had always had personal ties back, and when he realized he was never going to be able to return to Cuba he tried, "to hang himself with the light cord in the bathroom (229)." His dreams of his future in Cuba were shattered, but he refuses to request United States citizenship. The daughter eventually returns to Cuba which further connects her to her Cuban culture and her parents bringing her closer all of her. Obejas experienced the difficulty when assimilating into American culture while also retaining some heritage and culture from Cuba. Relateable to Obejas, the family clearly exhibits ties to their Cuban culture throughout their quest for an American identity. The
ReplyDeletedaughter reaches a point of equilibrium when she takes her American found self and combines it with her Cuban interests to create her true character as a happy medium between the two cultures.
Throughout history, the Chinese people have had to overcome many struggles. In comparison, the country of Cambodia, where Nea's family fled from, experienced many conflicts because of war. Nea and her family had originally moved to Texas. There her mom found a job that was not supportive, crushing the family's views on "the American dream", but Nea's family relocated to South Dakota, where she thought they would find "the real America", with the white picket- fenced yards and the house pets (131). Instead what she and her family found was the hard labor that was needed in order to reach the American standards. Nea also becomes aware of the corruption within the lower levels of American society. When one of the drunk customers calls Sourdi his"China doll" (131). This makes Nea stab the man in order to protect her sister, and it also expresses how American society is full of negative influences, not just peaceful suburbs.
ReplyDeleteMay-Lee Chai, the author of "Saving Sourdi", reflects many of her personal experiences in Nea's story. Chai was the first American- born member of her family. She lived in California, a area heavily influenced by Chinese and oriental cultures. Through Nea's character, she expresses the pride that Chinese immigrants had in operating a restaurant, like the Silver Palace, because of the sweat and hard work used to lay a foundation for a new beginning. Even in today's society, coming in from another country and creating a successful business or lifestyle is a great achievement. By writing "Saving Sourdi", Chai clearly emphasizes how the true American dream is a challenge for any foreigner, and in order to be successful, obstacles, whether cultural or personal, must be overcome.
In the short story “We Came All The Way from Cuba So You Could Dress like This” the daughter, the protagonist, tells the story of the assimilation into American society from communist Cuba. Obejas, the author, relates to the daughter’s struggles as she went through the same thing as she immigrated to America. In Cuba at that time the government’s power was very centralized. The family in the story is very similar, with all of the power centralized around the father. This restricted the lives of the Cubans, obviously not making them happy about their situation, just as the daughter felt and tried to rebel against her father’s power. Also censorship is in both Cuba and the family. In the family the father’s opinion is the only opinion allowed and any challenge made is disrespect to the father. It is difficult for the daughter to assimilate into the American society because she is an outsider in America. This is shown through the nameless characters in the story as a detached or undiscovered identity. She struggles to discover who she is while dealing with the pressure from her parents to succeed. The family moved from Cuba so that she could have better opportunities and a better life, and if she fails, all of her parents’ sacrifices and pain suffered getting the family to America would be in vain. In comparison to her family’s political beliefs, the daughter is a politically radical woman and she will not hide her sexual or political affiliations within her family. She is very different from her family, especially her father, but they do not break all ties with each other. There is, however, definitely a separation of the daughter from the traditional to the revolutionary.
ReplyDeleteMany people face struggles that relate to diversity and being new to the country. May- lee Chai was the first of her family to be born in the United States. Her family most likely faced struggles at some point when coming to the country. In Chai's short story, "Saving Sourdi", the characters in the story face challenges due to their family's background. In the story, Nea and Sourdi face challenges because of their family's Chinese background. Hoping to find the American Dream, often thought of when coming to America, their family has everything but the American Dream. They face struggles and their family is the owner of your stereotypical Chinese restaurants. Sourdi took in all of the negative and just accepted that this was life. Nea however, was defensive and did not want society to stomp on her or anyone in her family.
ReplyDeleteWhen Nea tries to save Sourdi or protect her from the drunk men, Nea ends up stabbing the man proudly to protect her sister. As n unexpected result, she was forced by her mother to apologize to the men. Chai states, "Ma grabbed me by the shoulders. "Say you sorry. Say it." I pressed my lips firmly together and hung my head. Then she slapped me"(131). Ironically, Nea is punished. This illustrates how society is backwards and people of the working labor class such as her family, have to deal with the struggles and apologize to the people who purposely step on them.
The story, "Saving Sourdi" reflects May- Lee Chai's life and how she too was affected by the struggles associated with her family's background.
The legal process of immigration may be simple but being accepted into a new culture and society creates struggle for many people. Just like many first born children of immigrants in the United States, May- Lee Chai had to deal with the gap between her parent's cultural securities and the outside influences. In the short story 'Saving Sourdi', the younger sister Nea must live under her family's values and under the beautiful image of her sister. Her sister is sought after by many men and when she is finally married Nae worries that she is being beaten by her husband Mr. Chhay whom she was arranged to marry by her father. This arranged marriage may be normal for the parents but to Nae it is not a part of the culture in the United States. She not only hates Mr. Chhay but she is now alone working the typical family restaurant. This adds to Nae's struggle to become some one more than just the daughter of the immigrants because society stereotypes her as a girl who will speak in broken English and only know what the items on the menu are not what they really mean.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese are known for having rigid traditional family values. In the short story "Saving Sourdi", the characters' lives are heavily influenced by these traditions. I feel the mother, however, is the character that these values affect the most. In this new world to which they move to, the family is without a father (the dominant figure in Chinese families). This means that the mother has had to take on a paternal and maternal role in raising all her children. She not only runs a resturant but also lives up to her culture's standards by raising and marrying off her children, like Sourdi. The mother's need to marry her children is the basis of why Nea struggles throughout the book to "save Sourdi" from her arranged marriage. In Nea's eyes her mother did an unfair thing by marrying off and taking away her beloved sister from her. However to keep their culture alive and do what she felt was best for Sourdi her mother gave Sourdi a husband for protection and comfort for her future. " Ma liked Sourdi's husband. He had a steady job, a house. She didn't mind he was so old and Sourdi just eighteen when they married. In her eyes, eighteen was a good age to start a family," (136). Chai's background can relate to the mother's drive to retain her culture because just like Nea's mother, Chai has moved several times into new states or countries where her culture may not be the dominant culture. However she has retained her treasured beliefs just like Nea's mother had even when other cultures may have been pushed upon her.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.may-leechai.com/About_May_Lee_Chai.htm
"We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" This is the question a Cuban immigrant man asks his daughter when she comes home from college some time after the family moves to the United States. This is also the title of the same short story by Achy Obejas, telling the story of of young girl and her family and their escape from the communist rule of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Upon their arrival, the family encounters numerous difficulties as the stark cultural differences set the traditional Cuban family and the ideas of democracy in America far apart. These barriers not provide a challenge for the young girl and her family, but they also increase the reader's interest regarding the difficulties faced. While meeting with an immigration officer, who is a Hungarian-American and has gone through struggles of her own, the young girl encounters a Catholic women providing charity to those in need, these new arrivals into the U.S. Despite the women's kind actions, "She smiles and talks to [the young girl]in incomprehensible English, speaking unnaturally loud"(225). The young girl feels lost after only being in America for a short time, as she cannot even understand this woman who is trying to help. Obejas most likely endured struggles and challenges similar to those of the young girl, as Obejas too was born in Cuba and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was young. Knowing that Obejas went through a very similar situation, much of this story could be autobiographical on Obeja's part,as it describes the hurdles that a young Cuban girl had to overcome to be successful in America, with one of the biggest challenges being the mere fact that the girl did not speak English.
ReplyDeleteA theme in many short stories is the conflict a character faces because of their background or history. In Achy Obejas’s “We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress like This”, we find a woman sharing her story as a Cuban immigrant in the United States. Ever since they have moved to the U.S. the woman’s parents have told her how lucky she is to grow up in a country where she can grow up to be anything she wants, a privilege her parents did not have. But as the story progresses, we find that the narrator wondering what her life in Cuba would have been like…”And what if we’d stayed, and there had been no revolution?” (230). This reveals her longing to find out where she comes from in order to find out more about herself. Living in the U.S., the narrator expresses multiple times that a piece of her is missing, a piece that is vital to her identity of which she is unable to find out more about because her parents will not share but so much information. Because of this yearning to find out what her life could have been like, the narrator takes it upon herself to go to Cuba which helps her understand her roots.
ReplyDeleteAchy Obejas, the author of “We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress like This was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. when she was around six years old, after the revolution. Like the narrator in her story, we can assume that she too, often wonders what her life would have been like in Cuba. As an immigrant, it is hard not to feel alienated and perhaps unfulfilled by the gap of who you could have been and what you are and this is a conflict that Obejas expresses in her short story.
Many of the short stories that we have studied so far this year are based on conflict. Sometimes this conflict is internal; sometimes it is external, and other times it is between internal and external forces. However, in "We Come All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This," the main character, an unnamed narrator, faces both internal and external conflicts. On the inside, the main character is trying to find herself, as a Cuban born immigrant living in Miami. On the outside, she is struggling in her relationship with her parents, two people who are adamant that they will return to Cuba, but meanwhile they will live their lives as Cubans in the United States. For example, while the narrator's mother dreams that she will be "the owner of many appliances and a rolling green lawn" and "the mother of two mischievous children; the wife of a boyishly handsome North American man" (226). In reality, when the narrator grows up, she lives "Uptown, in a huge house with a dry darkroom...now converted and sealed black" (231). She is also a lesbian who does not get married. The narrator's mother wants the narrator to live the American Dream because it was not something that she had living in Cuba. However, the narrator does not want that life and has to find out who she is before she can live up to anyone else's standards.
ReplyDeleteIn "Saving Sourdi" by May Lee Chai, a family of refugees from Cambodia come to America to get away from the turmoil of post war Cambodia. Sourdi, Nea, and their mother initially move to Texas in order to try and start a new life, separated from the painful memories of their past. However Texas only held "crummy jobs" for their mother and certainly didn't fit in with the all too picturesque American dream.(131) In pursuit of the real American dream, the family then moves South Dakota only to find "the hot sweaty America where we lived packed together in an apartment with bars on the windows on a street where angry boys in cars played loud music and shot guns at each other in the night"(131). When they arrive in South Dakota, they have to face many challenges simply due to the fact that they are from a foreign country and have come with nothing. They have this idea of the American dream, but find out that in order to live the American dream, they will have to do a lot of hard work in order to make their way to the top. Much like the family in Saving Sourdi, the author May Lee Chai's family also came to America from a foreign country to pursue a better life. Her grandparents came to the United States to pursue a better life for their family. Thus she is able to relate to the struggle that comes with foreign people trying to make it in a new country.
ReplyDeleteAchy Obejas is a contemporary Cuban-born writer, with works that revolve around a strong theme of self-identity along with nationalism and the powerful connection that one feels to a home country, as seen in the short story “We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This.” Because Obejas experienced the uprooting from Cuba to Miami in the United States, she vividly depicts life as an immigrant in her stories. She is able to recollect on the struggle that one must face in a test of character and heritage. In this short story, she does not give names to her characters, thus reflecting both the internal as well as external battles that take place within the characters own self-reflection, as well as how their new surroundings view them. As the protagonist narrates the story, her own issues of self are revealed when she struggles to stay connected to her parents and freely express her “frowned upon” sexual preference. Her parents escaped Cuba with her in order to provide a white picketed fence dream. She feels the pressure to succeed, because if she strays too far from her parent’s path, the she is forced to feel the guilt of not upholding her family’s aspirations. “And what if we’d stayed, and there had been no revolution (230),” is the question that is constantly floating to the surface of her mind when she decides which paths to take. Working towards discovering herself as a Cuban female in an environment of predominantly white Americans, balances with her desire to fulfill her parents American dream for her.
ReplyDeleteIn "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" the beginning of the story provides a link between the author and the event. In the beginning of the story a young girl and her father and mother have escaped from Cuba and have come to America. They were hoping to escape the rule of Fidel Castro and eventually return to their homeland. Achy Obejas can directly relate to this; Obejas immigrated to America as a small girl similar to the child in the story. The little girls feelings of terror and confusion were the feeling Obejas experienced when she came into this country. "I fold my arms in front of my chest and across the green sweater" (224). The little girl is barricading herself from the new society. Obejas portrayal of this time in the little girl's life mirror's a time of her own. This enhanced the plot by adding not only a textual example but also a real life example. The reader understood more what the family was growing through because the vivid details the author used from her own experience.
ReplyDeleteIn " Saving Sourdi" the main character, Nea, battles agianst her cultural background. Her older sister Sourdi is married to an older gentleman as an agreement with Nea's mother. In Cambodian culture, arranged marriages are not uncommon. Nea saw this aspect of her culture as negative and had hoped to get more from the "shining America" than this. Mai-lee Chai's own life is reflected in the story. Her family came to America from China in a way much like Nea. The culture difference between the countries is certianly a way that the story reflects the author's experiences.
ReplyDelete@Emily- A feeling of ‘disappointment in America’ is a very interesting dynamic in the story indeed. I love your comments about Nea’s struggle with realism.
ReplyDelete@Jessica- Great job connecting the characters to their culture! On the heels of Emily’s post, I find it interesting that in neither story can the characters become completely satisfied with only American culture.
@Christiana- I really like how you brought out the struggles of finding ‘the real American dream’ in both stories.
@Virginia- I found it very interesting how you compared the father to the Cuban government. Great job bringing in different aspects of the Cuban culture!
@Sarah- I definitely agree with your comparison of Sourdi and Nea. Also, great job relating the story to the author at the end.
More comments coming soon from Alex…
@Haley- I like that you used semi-universal examples that most people can relate to or at least empathize with.
ReplyDelete@Lindsay- I thought it was great the way you showed the strict and rigid ideals of the Chinese and the effects that the absence of a male figure can have on the entire family.
@Dan- I enjoyed reading about the barriers you used, I found it interesting and thought you did a great job tying everything in!
@Erin- I thought it was great the way you were innovative on not jut focusing on one force, but both external and internal, it definitely kept my attention!
@Allison- I think you did a great job in using the self- struggle and search for ones own identity that most people face at one point or another in his or her life.
EVERYONE ELSE, GREAT JOB BLOGGING! WE ENJOYED READING ALL OF YOUR POSTS, THANKS FOR DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB!