Analysis of Chapters 8 and 9 in Paradise of the Blind

Some say food is an exploration of culture, and taste evokes lush memories of the past. “ In An Island Passover” by Ethel G. Hofman, she described her life in the Shetland Islands. Every year, Hofman’s family celebrates Passover- a traditional Jewish holiday where time and effort to prepare a meal is like painting, and it takes months to reveal a masterpiece. While Hofman had a positive recollection of her family’s traditional cuisine, author of “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan did not share the same experience. Tan felt ashamed of sharing her traditional cuisine with a pastor's son whom she was in love with. Tan strived for her crush’s approval because she did not want to be deemed strange. Hofman and Tan had striking differences in

The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are beautiful around the summer time, but my favorite city was Huế, the city of cheap eats. My siblings and I have never been to Vietnam before, so it was an experience for all of us. As we were sitting down in a restaurant, looking at the menu, an old lady came up to us to take our order. My mother used to order for my brothers, so she ordered for them. When the lady looked at me, waiting for me to give her my order, all I could do was point at the picture on the menu and give her a smile. The look on her face was clear displeased. “She was born in America. She doesn’t know Vietnamese,” my father quickly told her, apologizing for my lack of knowledge. I felt embarrassed, lowering my head whenever she came near us. It was not my fault that I did not know my native language, but it was not my fault entirely for being able to learn it all these

For this paper I will examine Vietnamese culture according to the five essential questions all cultures must answer (according to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck). I will then take those answers and compare then to out culture here in America. I realize that some might argue that using North American culture as a starting point is an attempt to simplify this writing, but I believe that any initial examination of something new is most effectively done in comparison to what one already knows.

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

Ha’s mother is grieving the disappearance of her husband and the fall of Vietnam to Communism. The fallout of the Vietnam War causes separation for Ha and her family. Once in America, Ha finds that many in the small township move to ignore her culture and her heritage. Vietnamese culture and

Food is used in different circumstances in life represents a culture, but can also reflect one's personality, lifestyle, and socio-economic

The family eating together is a representation of unity. Aunt Ida through her quilts evokes the imagery of unification just as Soto’s imagery of his family eating together.

Have you ever read the cultural story “A Family Supper” by Japanese author, Kazuo Ishiguro? Generally, it’s the conflict between generations in changing Japan, one can understand that this story depicts a young Japanese man (the narrator) who lived in America and has come back to Japan, his motherland to attend the funeral of his mother. He had dinner with his family at the first time of the year. With emphasis on generational conflict, the three aspects that are relationship between the son and his father from their conservation, the cultural property mentioned in the story and how the father’s disappointment affects his son, the narrator of the story.

People only focuses on where they are but forgets where they came from. In “The Trip Back”, Robert Olen Butler criticizes self and family importance on cultural perspective through the story of Khánh, a Vietnamese man living in Louisiana, who is on a way back of picking up his wife’s grandfather. Butler sets cultural difference viewpoint as the crucial aspect of the story through Khánh’s behavior.

In the novel, Paradise of the Blind, written by Duong Thu Huong originally in Vietnamese and translated into English by Phan Huy Duong and Nina Mcpherson, the author constructs characters Aunt Tam and Uncle Chinh as analogs of conflicting political ideologies of 20th century Vietnam in order to display her opinions on its effectiveness in attaining proclaimed paradise. The characters are constructed to differently express the author’s voice towards extremist ideologies, Uncle Chinh

When you are asked what your daily essentials are, food must be one of your answers. We all know that food means a lot to people but have you ever thought about food from another perspective? Anderson’s readings investigate food from many other perspectives. According to Anderson, food represents our views, class, power, lifestyles and identities. These ideas are true and can be found among the Trobriand Islanders. In their society, life revolves around lineage and food because lineage controls all the food. In order to make the lineage system successful, people from Trobriand Island treat yams as their wealth, social status and political power. Connecting back to Anderson’s ideologies, the idea of food represents social class is reflected by the different treatment received by the Trobriand Islanders, Islanders’ urge to work represents the connection between food and political power, and the fact that lineage is more important than oneself indicates the idea of food is identity.

The author is a travel expert in Southeast Asia. Her book “Vietnam” is about the useful experiences for every tourists when they plan to visit Vietnam. Janet focus on Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Nha Trang, and few central cities. The book has 2 episodes and included 30 chapters. It gives readers a background knowledge of culture, history, and local lifestyles. Each chapters takes readers on an introductory tour with stops at museums, historic sites, and local attractions. It provides the useful information for places to stay, eat, and get around. Detailed maps features and tourism contacts are also provided. This book is an adventure guide to Vietnam.

When two people appreciate different values, it will eventually lead to conflicts. If they cannot get to a compromise, as a consequence, their relationship will collapse. The family bond between the father and the brother in “Simple Recipes” is destroyed because of their conflict about values. In the story, the competing values in shown when the two characters unable to identify themselves, in terms of cultural identification. The father, representing the family’s cultural roots, is trying to preserve the Malaysian heritage and culture in his immigrated family, in the image of his anger towards his son forgetting the native language, while his son does not identify himself with the Malaysian roots at all, with his rejection of eating the fish (501). These competing values, consequently, incites conflicts between

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Specific societies that associate with class, caste, race and gender distributions, uses food as a tool to maintain these social systems. For example, Counihan (1999) uses India to show