The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Book Report

It is a story about a family who shows so much loyalty to their traditions and cultures, but it clashes with the strict American “norm” and creates conflict for their most prized possession, their daughter. Young Lia’s health is at risk when the doctors are trying to treat her epilepsy, but the culture barrier between them and her parents put her at risk. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee believe that their ancient traditions and healing is what Lia needs in order to get better, but Lia’s doctors prescribe her with many prescriptions to help with the seizures and her parent’s inability to read or speak English to communicate

In the documentary, “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America,” portrays the journey of an immigrant Hmong family battling to maintain their cultural traditions alive in the United States. In the Hmong culture, it is believed that every individual has seven souls and if they have an illness, for example sickness, it means that their soul has departed or taken by evil spirits. Hmong people believe in Shamans, who are gifted and respected people who can make contact with their ancestors and return the lost souls of people. In this documentary, the main character Paja Thao is a shaman who is challenged by American customs to keep his cultural Hmong traditions alive and pass it down to his children. Paja becomes sick because he feels like his children don’t care about the Hmong tradition anymore because they don’t participate in his rituals and realizes his children have assimilated to the American culture. The different ways one can look at Paja’s illness is by acknowledging the Hmong culture and by looking at the perspective of the biomedical world.

Many people face some kind of adversity in their lives, but only few are recognized to the same extent as Adeline’s experiences in the autobiography ‘Chinese Cinderella’, written by Ms. Adeline Yen Mah. ‘Chinese Cinderella’ suggests that mental strength is what is needed to overcome all forms of adversity in life. This essay will discuss the ways in which that Adeline uses intellectual power to overcome the difficulties in her life, the outcomes she achieved and the messages she portrays.

In the novel, Love Medicine, the reader gets to read about what it’s like to live a life as an Ojibwe Indian. The reader follows a family through the struggles of their everyday lives and witnesses how the individual characters develop through this story. Louise Erdrich created a character that’s development during these 60 years stood out significantly, Lipsha Morrissey. Lipsha’s character develops from a shy, anxious young man he was in the beginning into a more strong and confident man to wards the end. He does so by learning the true meaning of family and by discovering his own self worth in the process.

Failure is a grueling issue to consider even if it’s a natural way of life. Ha Songnan’s “Waxen Wings” expresses to never give up on your dreams because sometimes it takes failure to discover achievement. The nameless South Korean girl, “Birdie”, travels back to her childhood. As a child and even as an adult she has a brilliant imagination that consists of flying; yet, imagination is a ignominy in her culture. Having the imagination of flying leads Birdie to a plethora of failures. Throughout the story, Songnan utilizes cause and effect structure,second person point of view, and literary device of mythological allusion to contribute to the overall theme: failure is an evil necessity, which wouldn't make the story a tragedy.

Sanapia was a member of the Comanche tribe. This is a reservation Oklahoma. Her birth was in the spring of 1895. Religion was a personal matter (Kavanagh, 2009). This has resulted in exposure to more than one belief system during her childhood. First, her first influencer is her father, he converted to Christianity. Second, her maternal uncle and parental grandfather, whom practiced peyotism. There are multiple ways and uses for peyote as medicine. Lastly, her mother taught her about the traditional way of healing. These practices are through a vision quest, guardian spirits, and dreams. Her mother was an eagle doctor, and functioned as a midwife. It was her mother and uncle who gave Sanapia the training to be an eagle doctor. They taught

Taking place in Vancouver, Canada, as a Chinese immigrant, Grandmama, is determined to stay true to herself and her beliefs in order to decide her own fate, despite what others think. The short story, The Jade Peony, written by Wayson Choy, demonstrates how one's dedication to their culture, love for family and the preservation of memories can allow one to feel intact, regardless of other people's opinion and resulting in one's capability/ability to determine one's own fate. As Grandmama prepares for death, she cherishes and passes on her past experiences in China as well as her current memories in Canada, she continues to follow her traditions and prepares her family for her death while attempting to pursue her destiny.

In Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, two cultures clash with each other in the struggle to save Lia Lee, a Hmong child refugee with severe epilepsy. Although Lee and her family live in the United States, and thus receive medical care from Westerners, her family believes that Lee’s condition is sacred and special. The following miscommunications, both culturally and lingually, between the American doctors and the Lee family leave Lia Lee in comatose at the end of the book. However, Lia Lee could have been saved if the Lee’s had a better understanding of the American doctors’ intentions, and the American doctors understood the Hmong culture. Essentially, the tragedy of Lia Lee can be attributed to the clash of American and Hmong cultures at both the surface and sub-surface level.

In his book, author Oliver Sacks tells the accounts of many of the stories he has encountered throughout his career as a neurologist. Each individual story ranging from a variety of different neurological disorders, displays a common theme which add to Sacks’ overall message conveyed. The themes that are conveyed by Sacks include losses, excesses, transports, and the world of the simple. Each theme consists of grouped stories that coincide with the overlying message. In the losses section, the nine chapters all deal with some sort of deficit inside of the brain. This section included the title of the book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”. In this story, the underlying problem consisted of a man, Dr.P, who could piece together individual

People of the world have a situation on their hands. The situation is considered armed and dangerous. It has multiple confirmed kills. The situation, better known as Isolation, attacks the mind and body of its victims. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Stetson writes a story about a woman name Jane treated for postpartum depression. On the contrary, in the article “How Extreme Isolation Warps The Mind” Michael Bond describes many different circumstances in which isolation engulfs the body and mind of people in close quartered areas. Isolation slowly creeps in and attacks the health of one’s body and mind in a confined area.

The book Girl interrupted is a humorous nonfiction Autobiographical book about the author Susanna Kaysen experience in side a mental intuition with others in which she encountered. The story takes place in 1967 Massachusetts inside McLean Hospital. Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a mental institution after visiting her psychiatrist and discovers she is having a problem and offers her a place to “rest”. She plans on staying just a few weeks but ends up stay a total of 18 months were she meets many of other mental ill patients and is later diagnosis with Borderline Personality Disorder.

There 's a subtle wonderfulness to this story. It 's such a relatable story that involves day to day recounts of activities, Kimberly and her mother 's struggles and strives, financially and culturally. Especially from Aunt Paula. Once she said: “You can release your heart, older sister” (148). And another conversation is that “I am too smart to cheat….It is under me” (157).Even though Kim’s mother suffered loneliness ..she is such a bold character to suffer and sacrifice though she got hardships and rejection from Aunt Paula. . “You may need to change your dreams. My little heart, listen. But sometimes our fate is different from the one we imagined for ourselves. (56)”Once Ma told to Kim. Jean Kwok talk about Girl in Translation and earned a new found respect for her work. Kwok

I loved the way Kehoe sought to fill the existing spiritual gap in assessing and working with her mentally ill clients at Longwood. I felt her approach was holistic and person-centered in the best of ways. Kehoe’s work challenged traditional clinical boundaries by acknowledging and extending respect to the deeper spiritual realities of her clients. While this orientation of respect and dignity may seem commonplace and uncomplicated, in a world where individuals with mental illness are often treated as second class citizens and with a general air of wariness, caution and suspicion, Kehoe’s work is truly remarkable and groundbreaking.

Prodhi Manisha COCO 5 What are the forms of resistance available to slaves and what purposes do they serve? The study of the complex system of slavery has remained critically insufficient due to the predominant treatment of the subject from a legislative and socioeconomic perspective localized in an external, corporeal world. In “The

Malik Reyna-Mclemore Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” Week 10, Reflection 14 In Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard provides an elaborate idea of faith, and how faith has become more negligent in his generation. He presents faiths relationship between ethical and religious in the teleological suspension. He uses the story of Abraham and Isaac