Saving Sourdi Summary

The short story “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai is about two sisters who develop in very different ways. May-Lee’s story accurately shows the bond of sisterhood at a young age and how maturing and making grown-up decisions can drastically change a strong relationship. Nea and Sourdi are the two main characters. Nea, who is the narrator, is a young girl who struggles to mature and understand the decisions of her old sister Sourdi. Sourdi is mature but timid compared to Nea which causes certain characteristics to be brought out in Nea. The story is called “Saving Sourdi” because Nea is continuously trying to help her sister but does so in ways that aren't conventional. Even though Nea fails to grow-up like Sourdi at the beginning of the story, by the end her character has a moment of maturity. For these reasons, the sisters are foil to each other, Nea is the protagonist as well as the antihero, and both Nea and Sourdi can be considered dynamic characters.

Discrimination can have negative effects on the mental health of those who are targeted. According to the American Psychological Association, "For many adults, dealing with discrimination results in a state of heightened vigilance and changes in behavior, which in itself can trigger stress responses — that is, even the anticipation of discrimination is sufficient to cause people to become stressed.7 AI/AN adults are most likely (43 percent) to take care about what they say and how they say it, as well as to avoid certain situations, to cope with day-to-day discrimination. Hispanic and Black adults (31 percent and 29 percent, respectively) are most likely to say they feel a need to take care with their appearance to get good service or avoid harassment. Many adults also report trying to prepare for possible insults from other people before leaving home (25 percent of AI/AN, 23 percent of Blacks, 21 percent of Hispanics and 15 percent of Asians and Whites) (The Impact)." The data they collected shows the effect of discrimination of people of different races. The stress put on people from discrimination leads to mental problems and the feeling that you don't deserve better. In the book, Henrietta marries her older cousin after he had probably taken advantage of her as a young child. Henrietta most likely did this because she was afraid of what Day would do to her and she didn’t have really

During the story, Chai paints a picture of two extremely close sisters who have been put to the test. The pair has been relocated, put to work, and expected to mature quickly in their harsh new world. Nea is the narrator of the story, and she shares: ”We used to say that we’d run away, Sourdi and me.” (72) The sisters would whisper their secrets back and forth at night, and lock themselves in the bathroom together and hide away together. As children the girls were inseparable but soon the age difference comes between them. Sourdi finds comforts in her first romance with a dishwasher, Duke, and slowly but surely Nea is left by the wayside. This distance is increased when Mr. Chhay is introduced and Nea quickly realizes that her sister is being severed from her life: “It was the beginning of the end. I should have fought harder then. I should have stabbed this man, too.” (75)

We saw prejudice and discrimination throughout the book. For example, when Lafayette’s was charged with a crime due to hi, been associated with who did it. When LaJoe lost her benefits from the state due to her on and off husband using her home address and when collecting unemployment benefits which LaJoe did not claim as income coming into the home. In both instances, the Rivers were treated as if they were liars and criminals. Because of Lafayette being from the inner city, there was this predetermine thought about any youth that lived in the inner city from the court system. LaJoe was treated with disrespect by the welfare office because of the prejudgment they had formed about people that lived in the inner city. Due to the location in which they stayed, the importance of healthy living condition was not a priority to the city. They were forced to live in the vicinity of garbage, broken sewer systems, dead animals, etc. Also, the children were forced to either stay in their apartments or play on the railroad tracks because the city had only a few areas for them to play. These areas had become run down and it was unsafe for kids to play in. It is unsure why the was such neglect for those areas of the inner city, but one could only think that it had to do with how this race has been treated for years.

Throughout the novel many problems occur. Some of the main problems are racial and equality issues. Events in this book show how prejudice and intolerance can ruin numerous friendships and change lives.

Firstly, oppression is evident through various types of abuse through the main characters, Aminata and Celie. Both have faced several forms of abuse such as physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse that have stripped away their identity and dignity. For instance, Aminata fights for her freedom throughout her entire life, only to suffer from physical abuse almost everyday on the slave ship and to suffer from sexual abuse on the plantations. Moreover, Aminata

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

Discrimination in the novel is mostly obvious from Joseph Strorm, who is ironically the father of a deviant, David Strorm. He is the strictest devout of his religion in Waknuk and being the heir of Waknuk, he bears the responsibility to keep the society deviation-free. He does so by discriminating against deviants, like the society, and punishing them for being born ‘wrong’. His devotion to God and the ‘Definition of Man’ can be seen when he hit his son, David for wishing he had a third hand by mistake. He is sensitive to any form of deviation and punishes them harshly but he does admit that God is merciful, as seen from ‘God, in His mercy, may yet grant you (forgiveness)’. This is ironic as Joseph, being a devout, should be following God’s footsteps and be merciful in his actions too but he is willing to kill and punish people instead, contradicting his religion. His intolerance of deviations led him to discriminate against them, as can be seen from how he refused to help Aunt Harriet and humiliated her instead when she came begging for help to save her innocent deviant child. Joseph had also discriminated against the great horses unsuccessfully as the government had approved of them and there

An example of this is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood- a true story about a murder. When discussing a murder that he has committed in the past, one of the main antagonists, Perry, claims that the victim was just “a n*****” (Capote 129) and that killing him was “not the same” (Capote 129) as killing a family of four white people. Perry, who grew up in an “orphanage run by nuns,” (Capote 110) exhibits severe racist views by claiming that the African-American was somehow less human than the white people he killed; Perry dehumanizes his first murder victim based on ethnicity. Because he was raised by nuns, he should have a higher moral code than the average person because nuns are supposed to be good people, but he is still racist. Perry is an indicator of how society’s morals regarding ethnic discrimination are off. Discrimination is an issue so serious that it can stop a murderer from feeling

Inherently with racism, classism and sexism are smaller issues in the overall scheme of the system, but A Raisin in the Sun refuses to ignore them. Beneatha, a modern women especially for her time, is quick to notice all this unfairness in the community. For example with classism, she speaks on the topic so nonchalant like it’s a normality; “It makes just as much sense as disliking people ‘cause they are poor, and lots of people do that” (1.1.50). This classism stems from the fact that a majority of the black community is in poverty, but not necessarily at their own fault. The family moves into a predominately white neighborhood as Mama finds that “Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses” (2.1.93). Having important shelter for family at such high cost is will obviously leave them in poverty, which works out great with racism, as they are worth nothing in that system. Sexism also runs deep into the system. In American society, sexism is found all around, but this struggle is heightened for the black women who are facing strong blows of both sexism and racism. Beneatha is faced with this constantly. Her own brother, Walter, constantly puts women, explicitly black, down. He often spouts awful phrases such as “no thanks to colored women” and complains

Although the character of Sofia knows that her resistance will cause trouble, she feels it is more important to stand up for herself, than to bow down to repression of white authority. Had Sofia not fought back, she still would have been punished for cursing the Mayor’s wife. There was no pathway for Sofia to keep her dignity and not offend the Mayor and his wife. In that system, a black person had to remain inferior to whites, and in the South, follow the Jim Crow Laws that enforced segregation. C N Truman describes Jim Crow as “a minstrel show character from the 1830’s. He was portrayed as an elderly, crippled and clumsy African American slave and his portrayal showed all the negative stereotypes of African Americans – the black man with his white master with Jim Crow being thankful for his lot in life.” Sofia goes against these stereotypes as she is a strong-willed woman who throughout the text knows she is entitled to more. The only idea that Sofia follows, is that she unwillingly has a white master, but is never thankful for this.

This novel has many lessons that can be useful to someone. One main theme is racial equality. This story contains many cases where people are rude to blacks just because the color of their skin. The equality is not fair. In the court, Tom

When she received awards at school, her father praised her, yet her unforgiving brothers and sisters punished her. School was the only place where there was an atmosphere of equality, where others were happy for her. At home she had a family member, Aunt Baba, who was consistently supportive by her side. Yet at an award ceremony, Yen Mah was the only one without family members. This marks the beginning of a trend throughout her life, one of an absence of parents, a growth of independence, and an unparalleled self-reliance.

Throughout the year, we many been introduced and discussed important pieces of literature within the class. These novels stressing the disparities and hardships of said characters through racism. Racism is a barrier between the characters and their success. It obstructs people from opportunities as shown through the novels and much more. These novels may not be up to date, yet the problems presented, such as housing discrimination, educational inequality, and legal injustice, persists to be problems beyond books but problems around the streets and our very own neighborhoods.

The two heroines share a harsh background; they both have had a rough childhood and are searching for a way out of their misery. Their lives are centered around the strategies that contribute to their rise. When writing this essay I was mainly interested in exploring how even the characters with smaller roles could affect the outcome, could shape the path the heroines followed towards their rise, but also wanted to analyze all the aspects through characters contributed to the liberation of the heroines.