Tales From The Mekong Delta Essay

He was constantly high on heroin, and when he was not, he was grumpy and abusive towards her. Eventually in times of lonesome, Baby got a hold of drugs on her own. First, she tried magic mushrooms. At first, getting high was a way for Baby to entertain herself. However, she eventually tried her father’s drug of choice, heroin. She quickly becomes addicted to the feeling she gets when high off this drug. Heroin entwines itself into Baby’s day-to-day life and begins to impair her normal decision making, “There wasn’t much, but there was enough to make all my anger dissipate. As soon as I was high, I couldn’t even remember what my escape plan had been (569).”Her quick addiction allows Baby to find an escape from her reality. Turning to drugs to fill the void her parents left within her childhood is not only temporary, but it is dangerous. People close to Baby demonstrate first-hand the dangers that this coping mechanism can pose. Her pimp, Alphonse, even died of an overdose with her in the room, “As soon as I looked at Alphonse’s face, I knew that he was dead, even though I had never seen a dead body before (604).” Baby’s method of coping from her father’s negligence is to turn to the exact thing that she witness ruin him, heroin. However, as a child of her age, she would not know any better. Her father is happier and more affectionate towards her while he is high, so it would only make sense to her to think that she would be the

After a stressful situation with Montag and her friends, Mildred automatically took her sleeping pills to forget the whole ordeal. This can be connected to today’s world and people with addiction. Whether it be drugs, alcohol, or entertainment, people decide to drown themselves in different substances to forget instead of tackling the problem head on. Many people today die from overdoses and struggle greatly to overcome their addictions, which is a major issue.

Instead of spending his time and energy on making sure his family does not starve he "soaks up booze like a sponge." Walls even further describes him as a man who "knowing that all the bars and liquor stores would be closed on Christmas, usually stocked up in advance." Even after stating statements like these she still writes, "In my mind, he was perfect." As a result of her father's inability to support the family, Walls gets a job and recalls her father begging her for money. When she questions him about his need for the money he simply responds, "For beer and cigarettes." She responds perversely by saying, "I have bills piling up. I have kids to feed." Despite finding herself switching roles with her father, she never complains and sees her father through forgiving eyes and claims, "Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for it." Although her father may have a "slight drinking problem" she manages to not dwell resentfully on this, and instead chooses to believe he loves his family very dearly even if he does not show it all the time.

Growing up without parents is a rough task, but growing up without parents amongst a raging war is absurd. Having to run and hide in fear as your village is raided by North Vietnam soldiers is something no one should have to experience, but to those such as my dad, who has experienced this, it can be terrorizing. My dad grew up in the little town of Long Cheng, Laos living day to day struggling to survive. Living conditions for the lower class in Laos was already harsh enough, but when the Vietnam War broke out in 1961 these conditions got even worse. My father and many other Hmongs in Laos were in great danger of the communist armies.

This experience demonstrates her lack of innocent thoughts, since an innocent child would never ask that question. When Baby asks a boy named Johnny if he would be able to find her some “magic mushrooms”, his response demonstrates how young she really is. He makes fun of her, asking “Are you not just out of diapers?” (76). This quotation shows how she asks questions a twelve year old should never ask, but it also shows how other people see her as a young, innocent child when she really is not. She is not taken seriously by Johnny or any of the people who are older than her, apart from the drug dealers. Consequently, the fact that Baby is exposed to drugs at a young age combined with her early drug use lead to the disintegration of her innocence.

She lets the cleanliness of her once perfectly kept house go to pot. She no longer cares about reality or morals and becomes lost to the raw desires of her primal nature.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a novel about infatuation, addiction, and going to great lengths to feed the extremely demanding needs of two. Based on Hopkins' former meth addict daughter, we follow Kristina’s path of destruction closely and personally through the writing style chosen by Hopkins. Every page is written as a different poem, describing the life of Kristina and describing her addiction. Some of the poems in the novel are shown as a visual guide, shaped by the text of the page that triggers emotions and provides powerful messages. For example, in the poem

Firstly, Every hardship and obstacles she endured throughout her childhood helped Jeannette to become a successful adult.Jeannette’s parent were very unpredictable, her mother was self absorbed in her hobbies, and her father was an interminable alcoholic. Even though her parent neglected and gave less attention to Jeannette,

While in foster care she adapts to new dysfunctional homes and with new rules. She had an unhealthy relationship with her first foster’s mom boyfriend and that foster mom shot her in the shoulder. She was starved in another foster home and began using

The Hmong were a tremendous Help to the Americans in the Vietnam war, they had shown the Americans where to go and aided them in gunfights, they helped heal some men who had injuries. Many Americans who were injured had aided by the Hmong people. The Hmong who consequently supported the American Military was called a terrorist. In return, they helped the Hmong, the bomb called the yellow rain dropped and killed a huge amount of innocent Hmong and died. The Yellow Rain was designed to kill the northern Vietnam army but had a large widespread killed radius (BOFFEY). The U.S couldn’t stop the war and brought some of the Hmong to America to help and ignited a new life trying to free them from their misery, hell, and torture. The Hmong held a parade

Lil once had big dreams of living under the carnival lights and being a star in her own right, but her children only see her as the dotting mother and wife. During the pregnancies that Lil endured she became dependent on the experimental drugs Al supplied and as a result dependent on him. Lil spends her days cooking and sewing under the big lights, but never again truly runs the Fabulon. The drugs, or her grief keep her from morning the loss of her children, and she spends her

Orange County, about 45 miles (72 km) south of Los Angeles, is best known as a predominately White middle-class suburban city. After the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese refugees began new lives in Camp Pendleton’s ‘tent city’ in 1975. Not long after, the churches of Orange County found sponsors for many Vietnamese refugees. Since 1978, the resided refugees began to establish businesses. Little Saigon, the former name of the capital of Republic of Vietnam, was created with the nucleus being the Bolsa Avenue, bordering Garden Grove and Westminster. Today, there are over 200,000 Vietnamese American reside in the Orange County with Little Saigon as its center, enabling Vietnamese businesses and population to diffuse from Little Saigon to its adjacent

Wiest starts by chronicling the need for the 9th Division to be revived for service in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. Ninety percent of the Vietnamese transportation in the Mekong Delta was done by boat, and Wiest noted the importance of the area to both sides: "As the most valuable piece of real estate in South Vietnam, domination over the Mekong Delta was key to the success of both sides in the Vietnam War" (Wiest 24). Not only were the waterways in the Delta important to the Viet Cong for transportation of supplies, they were also a crucial communication network. If the United States and South Vietnamese forces gained control of the Mekong Delta, then that "offered the best and quickest method by which to throttle the Viet Cong and transform

These comments make Lenny feel embarrassed and ashamed of her family. Lenny uses the excuse of taking care of Granddad to not be able to make a life for herself. When Granddad is taken to the hospital she joins a singles group called Lonely Hearts of the South and meets Charlie. She seems to get along great with him but after awhile she lets her insecurities about having a bad ovary take over and she breaks it off without even telling him. Several times throughout the play she is shown to resent Meg for always getting whatever she wanted.

The tropical country of Vietnam is located in the south eastern Asia and is a prime location to study the impacts of significant health issues and their effect on the individuals of these communities. Vietnam is located on the Indochinese peninsula and is bordered by China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west and the South China Sea to the east and west. The country has a sizeable population of almost 93.5 million people as of 2015. Additionally, Vietnam has average life expectancies of males and females at 71 and 81 respectively. Despite its neighbors, Vietnam has a relatively poor Gross Domestic Product per capita of only 1910 United States dollars, and is classified as a middle income country by the World Bank. It has received this classification because Vietnam’s Gross National Income per capita of $2013 is greater than $1045 but less than $12736. By being a middle income country and less developed than a high income country, Vietnam is already more susceptible to many additional health issues.