A Look at Asian American Studies - Emery McKee - Ryan Caragher - Emma Rohrer - Gabe Velazquez

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THEMES!

T H E M E S :

Trauma from the w ar

In Vuong’ s work , we are reminded that the ef fects of the war did not end at escape f rom the war . Thi s i s shown through Rose ’ s character . For example, when L i t t le Dog catches Rose by surpr i se, she has a moment of ter ror and fear . She then explains to him that the war never leaves you once i t enters you. Instead, i t leaves a last ing “echo” ins ide of al l who had to exper ience i t and through the rest of the f i rst par t of the story , we see how the last ing t rauma causes her to act violent ly towards her son. Just l i ke the monarch but ter f l ies , Rose only had to migrate to the U.S. to survive, and i f she hadn ’ t i t i s l i kely that she wouldn ’ t be al ive today .

Gender & Se x ualit y

Simi lar to how L i t t le Dog’ s mother was never able to t ruly escape the war , L i t t le Dog i s faced wi th hi s own personal war caused by the rampant ant i-queer sent iment in the Uni ted States . He sees i t through mi st reatment caused to him and hi s mother by the neighbors , through the verbal abuse of a local t ransgender neighbor , and through hi s tox ic relat ionship wi th Trevor , a boy around hi s age who i s ashamed of hi s sexual i ty and lets out hi s f rust rat ions on L i t t le Dog. Even though L i t t le Dog’ s mother , Rose, had “escaped” the Vietnam War , her son st i l l has to face conf l ict here in the U.S.

Racism

L i t t le Dog’ s exper ience in the Uni ted States i s f i l led wi th raci sm, and he exper iences thi s through bul lying by students in hi s class . Just because he i s Vietnamese, hi s classmates establ i sh dominance over him because of hi s sk in color and cul tural background. However , raci sm i s not only presented in the states , but al so back in Vietnam. Hi s mother , Rose, was born of a Vietnamese mother and an Amer ican father . So in her town, she was di scr iminated against by her fel low Vietnamese ci t i zens because of her l ighter sk in color and fami ly l ineage. They throw feces on her and beat her wi th spoons in an ef for t to shun her f rom ident i fying wi th her own people, and i t becomes real i zed that no mat ter who you are and who you are around, unimpor tant di f ferences such as sk in color of ten lead to di scr iminat ion by others .