Instances of imperialism in THE GANGSTER WE ARE ALL LOOKING FOR

There are 2 scenes that stuck out to me because of their connection of Imperialism. This topic is important and relevant because of U.S. action in the Vietnam War and the many critiques of the decisions of the government. Le applies these feelings of American influence in these two scenes.

On page 47, the narrator tells her mother that she wants to fly “like the people in the movies.” Her mother replies by telling her that they are being pulled by “invisible strings.” There is an image of a puppeteer controlling the Asian flyer. It may seem that they are elegant and achieving great things, but when analyzed deeper, they are in-fact being manipulated to seem that way.

This next example connects imperialism with capitalism. On page 27 (not sure if mentioned in Monday’s class as I was not there), the tears of Ba are described by the uncles as useless in this country. The tears are used as, “Just water for Mel’s lawn.” This image gives a good example of U.S. interest in foreign matters. Under the layers of promoting democracy for the world, America, like its activity in the Philippines, do have unseen desires from Asian countries. Through capitalism and imperialism, America plays the role of Mel, and uses Ba as fodder for his own benefit, as described by the uncles. Through the pain of Ba, Mel’s life is increased in quality.

The Gangster We Are All Looking For

In The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy, Thuy writes a story about a Vietnamese immigrant experience from a coming of age girl perspective in San Diego. As a San Diego raised and born, I found some similarities between the two of us. Although, I can not relate to her refugee experience, I sense the poverty, the othering and the exclusivity of the larger community. On page 90, the girl describes how others look into her community, “some people think it’s dirty but they don’t know much about us… They haven’t seen our gardens full of lemongrass, mint, cilantro, and basil.” Often time immigrants are viewed as poor, dirty or lazy and in this paragraph she illustrates how her community is lively and full. I found this section very relatable because it is a realistic image of an asian american immigrant living. In San Diego, my family was always watched by neighbors because we had a large garden surrounding in out home too. In fact, our garden was ridiculed as something savagery or barbaric and inconsiderate of the neighborhood. Though they argue that we are being inconsiderate to their livelihoods, they are alienating immigrant and singling the immigrant community. Because, immigrants today do not resemble the white european immigrants from the other waves, immigrants can be easily ostracized and othered therefore justifying the politicking of the communities. In the novel, we can find many other sections that reiterates this immigrant experience and the feeling of someone watching from the outside. The constant outsider observation and criminalization is a response to the racist stereotypes controlled by the larger society. It is the idea that Vietnamese, Asian and non-white immigrants do not look like the right kind of immigrant therefore they will be treated differently in the United States and this section illustrates how the outside looks into the communities. 

The Gangster We Are All Looking For

Le Thi Diem Thuy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For brings readers to the perspective of civilians who were affected first hand by the plight of the Vietnam War. Reading through the journey that the narrator and her father took to get to America, I found most compelling the moment in Chapter 4, “the bones of birds”, when the narrator recounts the moment that her father and family attempted to escape from Vietnam on the fishing boat. “The night I left Vietnam, it was my father who carried me down to the beach and placed me on the fishing boat” (105 Le) . What was most compelling about this moment was the fact that it was not only an attempt to escape from the oppression that the family was surrounded around, but it involved many more people attempting to escape; wherein even the narrator’s father lost sight of her mother and “he couldn’t find her anywhere”. “[Her] mother must have been among the many voices, each calling for help as he passed by in the water” (105 Le). Throughout the discussion in class, I created this image of the narrator’s father as being a someone who was not only angry at the world, but also an individual who could not come to terms with the death of his son and the ordeal he had to be put through going from Vietnam to the refugee camp and ultimately to America. This scene on Pages 103-106 provide an intense scenario in which we witness a father who was compelled by his moral duty to protect his family and his strength was shattered by the fact that as he rescued his daughter, his wife was left in the midst of the chaos surrounded by a crowd of people who were equally determined to escape. “In America, my father worked as a house painter and then a welder. After he’d been laid off from his welding job, he became a gardener ” (105 Le). As these details provide an opportunity to understand the ways in which Ba acts in Chapter 5 (i.e. when he goes fishing and looks at the black water or when he decides to not answer the phone and decrease the volume), I found a sense of understanding as to why he did act strangely after dealing with such intense periods of his life.

Contradiction and Water

 

Contradiction and Water

Through the book, The Gangster We Are All Looking for, readers see many contradictions such as comfort, peace, rage, or sadness related to water. The way the book describes hands also tells reader the contradiction. When Ba and Ma fight in their apartment, Ma starts to cry and tells Ba not to touch her with his gangster hands. (92) Shortly after this scene, Ma gets punched by his hands. This scene tells readers not only their fighting but also his short temper. It implies Ba’s emotional roller coaster related to water, which is always moving up and down. The scene also shows how body could make rage and sadness. On the other hand, many scenes show readers comfort or peace caused by body. “Without any hair and looking like a man, my mother is still my mother. Her hands always bring me up, her peasant hands with the flat and wide nails. I will know her by her hands.”(95) This scene implies how her mother’s hands make her happy and comfortable. Through the book, readers do not often see her positive feelings about her mother.  While her mother’s emotion is also changing radically, her emotion is changing.  In terms of her trauma, peace, and Ba’s emotion, readers see how Ba’s emotional roller coaster affects her trauma and comfort. One night when she sees her father sad and broken, he realizes that she sees himself at that time. Then he resorts to force on her. (117) Then this scene, she tries to forget peaceful memories as well as sad memories. Those scenes show readers how his hands affect her memories and emotions. Ironically, when Ba and she go to see counselors, he apologizes with his hands, which make his rage and her sadness. Hands make people happy, peaceful, sad, or angry as well as water.

The Gangster We Are All Looking For (Week 10)

In reading “The Gangster We Are All Looking For,” I felt like I was reading the narrative a personal story. In comparison to some of the other readings, this book seemed more novel-like. At the same time, it felt like a bit of a historical narrative, since many of the events that the characters in the book went through had a large historical context with the war in Vietnam at the time as well as the experiences of refugees. Still, it continued to make us go into the language of the text and analyze it with its various types of figurative language.

One passage that I found interesting that played into the ever-present theme of water was on page 63, when the narrator asked Ma, “Where does water go when it goes away?” The part that stood out to me was when the narrator later asked, “What if someone goes down into water and doesn’t come up?” and Ma answers, “Don’t know.” To me, it seemed like a reference back to the narrator’s brother, who had drowned. Even though his body was retrieved, technically, he went down into the water and never came back up. Perhaps Ma was trying to avoid the topic because it brought back memories of the event since she simply said “Don’t know” and told the narrator “Hand me that spool of thread.”

The Gangster We Are All Looking For

In the novel “The Gangster We are All Looking for”, the author uses a slight form of poetry in order to describe the numerous scenes in the book. As mentioned by a fellow classmate, unlike the other books that we have read throughout the past weeks this novel was easiest to read.  The imagination and imagery that the author uses throughout the book gives the reader a clearer vision of how the main character feels in certain situations.  The way that the author described war in the third chapter is a prime example of how language influences the feeling of sorrow and mood in the book. “Ma says war is a bird with a broken wing flying over the countryside, trailing blood and burying crops in sorrow. If something grows in spite of this, it is both a curse and a miracle.”(pg 87). I felt that this book was dependent on using symbolism throughout the book in order to present the story rather than direct words because of the usage of the different bodies of water. The definition of water in Vietnamese is stated in the beginning of the book which personally made me interpret the meaning water whenever it was seen throughout the book.

The Gangster We Are All Looking For

                    Out of all the novels that we have read in this course, The Gangster We Are All Looking For is by far my favorite. The story was very enticing and I thought that the poetic language in the story was written beautifully. Although at times it was difficult to find the deeper meaning in the text, I appreciated all the symbolism and metaphors and how the author integrated them into the story. The motif of water that we discussed in class is the most outstanding of all the themes as it is connected back to everything the narrator talks about. I thought that it was interesting how the Vietnamese word for water “nu’ó’c”, was also the word for country and homeland and how that played in with everything that happened in the novel. The author made water a thing that was very comforting and traumatic which was a striking opposition. For instance, the narrator flees Vietnam on the boat through the ocean that leads her to her new home in the U.S. where she finds refuge from the political uprising in Vietnam. At the same time, adjusting and assimilating to life in the U.S. is not easy and the only thing that is keeping her apart from her original homeland of Vietnam is the body of water between the two countries. 

Anonymity in The Gangster We Are All Looking For

During the last class today, Professor Kunte brought up something at the very end that I have consistently thought was odd while reading The Gangster We Are All Looking For, but never analyzed until she brought it up. This was the fact the the girl remains anonymous through the entire story. After thinking about it more, I came to the conclusion that it somewhat reminded me of a diary, with the way that it was extremely personal and detailed (as though it had just happened that day) and especially due to the fact that there is no real reason for one to adress themselves by their first name in a diary entry. The significance of her writing in this way made the majority of the story seem incredibly realistic, even though there were a few time jumps mixed in throughout it. I also thought that the anonymity of the main character made it easy for readers to put themselves in her shoes. She wrote in such a descriptive way that, because of her anonymity, it was almost as though everything that happened to her happened to the reader as well, which built a connection between the character and audience that was somewhat persuasive. If she felt distressed, so did the reader, and no other perspective was really put into play after that. I thought it was an interesting way to make the audience feel somewhat included, or possibly even intrusive, on her life.