Sanctuary is defined as a place of refugee or safety (“Sanctuary”). This broad definition can be interpreted in many different ways, and it can mean many different things to many different people. To many, a sanctuary is a place of calm, a place of peace, and a place of no judgement. Many people find that sanctuaries are places close to them, such as a cabin, special spot in the park they relax in, or a vacation spot. Many are open to themselves, and different from their normal day to day environment. These people find the particular spots a refugee from their daily tasks, or a getaway from their normal work environment.
In the short story “The Americans” Viet Thanh Nguyen describes a family who takes a trip to Vietnam, in order to visit their daughter. Claire, the daughter, is there teaching Vietnamese students and she wants to stay in Vietnam. She has a sense of sanctuary in Vietnam. It is a place she feels safe in, a place she likes being, and it is a place she is able to escape the the feeling of not belonging. In the story, Mr. Carver finds himself visiting his daughter in Vietnam. He and his wife are visiting to see how his daughter is doing and when she is planning on coming home. Both Mr. and Mrs. Carver find out that Claire will not be coming home, as she finds Vietnam feels like home to her. Claire explains that she never felt like she had a place to be growing up, and Vietnam feels like a home to her. Claire feels that Vietnam is her sanctuary. She feels like
Thanhha Lai wrote a novel called “Inside Out & Back Again” which is about a little girl and her family in Vietnam, the little girl is named Ha. Ha and her family are in the city of saigon, the story takes place during the Vietnam war and because of the Vietnam war her and her family’s lives are turned “inside out”. But later everything comes “back again” This story relates to the universal refugee’s life because they themselves are turned “ Inside out and back again”.
Thesis: The Roanoke colony proved to be an unsuccessful venture in the New World for England, since leaders of the expedition held the viewpoint that privateering would prove to be the most profitable aspect of founding the new settlements in the West. However future, still unsuccessful attempts to make a permanent colony at Roanoke, helped England understand how to build a prosperous one; and it became a building block for establishing future colonies for England and helped shape the ideas that would help launch their empire.
America is the land of freedom and opportunity. It is a place where anyone can take refuge from harm and pursue their own dreams. However, the novel, The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen, portrays another perspective of being a refugee in the United States. The retelling of him becoming accustomed to America practices indicated that he faced an identity crisis. Specifically, he faces a contentious dilemma concerning how he would strike a balance between seeing himself as a person of Vietnamese heredity or of his American lifestyle. He amplifies the significance of this issue through the inquiry of certain practices of the community, his mixed views about fighting Communism, and his interactions with his family.
The book, The Latehomecomer, is a fascinating story about a Hmong family and their struggle to get out of Laos and come to America as refugees. The Hmong people are a very proud people and they do not want to forget their culture. One can clearly see that the Hmong people hold close their identity and do not want to conform to the Vietnamese way. They take pride in their culture, their society, and the way they view how government should run. Hmong people did not agree with the Vietnamese communist government and were willing to join forces and help the United States as much as possible so that they could fight for what they believed in. Even though most of the young men and boys that fought in the war died in battle or were
The following paper will discuss Vietnamese Americans and their journey to America. I will talk about how these incredible and resilient people fought to succeed it a world that seemed to hold the odds against them. The culture, beliefs, and challenges of Vietnamese people are a precise paradigm of their strength and perseverance.
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
In the year 1676, colonists of Jamestown rose up and rebelled against their governor, Sir William Berkeley, following the slaughter of several hundred colonists by the Native Americans. Their leader, Nathaniel Bacon, claimed that he was fighting for the colonists best interests because it was his duty to protect them. Following Bacon 's lead, the rebellion began attacking all Native Americans, both hostile and peaceful. Was Bacon a hero for attempting to protect the colonists, and putting a stop to the attacks from the Native Americans? Or a traitor for attacking innocent people, and trying to take Jamestown from Berkeley and the other colonists? While Bacon claimed his actions were for the protection of the colonists, they do not justify his actions. Bacon attacked many peaceful tribes of Native Americans, and in doing so he put many colonists in danger. And Berkeley was not any better considering he was willing to sit back and watch it all unfold.
The development of acceptance is a process laid upon several significant factors, and by belonging in community settings, one may gain confidence and feel tolerated. Likewise, being alienated and ostracised because of racial and social insecurities can have a negative influence on how one may act, and thus outcasts are made to feel inferior as a result of the harmful manner in which they are treated. These concepts of inclusion and discrimination are explored through the contemporary memoir of Anh Do, which focuses on a refugee’s journey from Vietnam to Australia. The Happiest Refugee (2010) methodically displays an array of perspectives surrounding belonging and presents factors of both family and community allegiance.
So, what are sanctuary cities? Sanctuary cities allow undocumented people to live productive and normal lives without having official documentation. Although every sanctuary city differs in specific policy, they tend to share the same goal of creating systems, like state IDs for non-residents, that allow undocumented people to hold steady jobs and contribute to their communities. Perhaps most significant, they do not conduct unnecessary immigration status checks every time someone enters police custody.
In 1975, the ‘Fall of the Saigon’ marked the end of the Vietnam War, which prompted the first of two main waves of Vietnamese emigration towards the US. The first wave included Vietnamese who had helped the US in the war and “feared reprisals by the Communist party.” (Povell)
Edited by Bernard Edelman, “Dear America” is a collection of letters written by soldiers during the Vietnam War. Their letters are written to love ones back home such as parents, siblings, and spouses but they are a great depiction of the Vietnam War. The soldiers would write these letters to help keep hope alive and to keep sane. Throughout the book the letters are categorize into those who are barely arriving into the war to those who have been there a long time. The stress and anxiety grows more and more as the letters continue and the soldiers begin to contemplate their situation. I’ve learned a lot of factual things about the Vietnam War throughout my life such as how it began and what the outcome was but reading this book was the
As a girl who was born and raised in Vietnam, a third world country, and then moved to the United States of America three years ago, I experienced a big culture shock. Everything was very different here compared to where I come from. It was a big opportunity for me to explore the new world. I got to learn about the differences between Vietnamese and American families, education, and food.
In the book The Quiet American Phoung, the beautiful Vietnamese girl caught in a love triangle with an American spy and a war correspondent, is seen as a commodity, something to be bartered, without actually taking her feelings into consideration. She is treated as a delicate victim who needs saving by the men in the book but although it seems like Greene is portraying Phuong as nothing more than an object, he means for her to represent much more than that. Greene’s portrayal of Phuong as an object represents the treatment of the Vietnamese people in the hands of the Americans. She is meant to be symbolic of her country, both men, American and British want to possess her, much like the war raging in Vietnam.
Her Uncle, Emmet, is also sent to Vietnam only when he comes back to the United States he suffers from PTSD and becomes a hippie. After Emmet returns from War Sam’s mother, Irene, takes care of him and eventually lets Emmet be the caretaker of Sam and the house as she moves to Lexington to continue school and start a family at the University of Kentucky. During this time Sam and Emmet become very close and Sam spends time around some more time with some of Emmett's friends that are also vets. The story follows Sam as she searches for more detailed information about what exactly Vietnam was like, meanwhile trying to find out more about her father in the process. Not only is this a coming of age story, but also one of a loss of innocence. Sam ultimately discovers that the war was viewed in different ways and had differing effects in the soldiers morals.
The subject of my interview is a 68 year elderly Vietnamese man named Minh “Bi” Ngo. Mr. Ngo has white long hair, a medium long white beard and a distinctive mole on the bottom of his left eye and a thick Vietnamese accent. He was born and raised in Vietnam on April 3rd, 1947. He is also a widow who is currently living with his daughter in Westminster, Orange County. Originally, Mr. Ngo was from the city of Buon Ma Thuot in the province of Dak Lak, Vietnam. He then immigrated to Falls Church, Virginia where he began his new life in the United States. At the time of the interview, Mr. Ngo looked very exhausted yet grateful at the same time. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Ngo through his daughter, who is a friend of my cousin. I conducted the interview on the afternoon of September 24th, which lasted for two hours. During the interview Mr. Ngo shared with me his experiences during the Vietnam war, his times in the Vietnamese Reeducation camps, his immigration to the United States, and his involvement in the Vietnamese community today. As the interview continues on, I began to comprehend a little bit more on the way it was back then and how the common folks