The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

Love exists as an emotion that continues to be challenging to comprehend, but once one feels it, it seems problematic to let it go. Kao Kalia Yang wrote the memoir The Latehomecomer, which tells of the toils the Hmong people faced in their excursion from Laos to the United States. Yang uses the story of her parents to convey the sufferings of the Hmong people and their journey. Her parents make a fitting example of a typical Hmong family fighting to survive and find love in a time of war. Although Kao Kalia’s parents met in unfortunate circumstances and had no home to live in, love kept them and their family together, even when times seemed their darkest.

In the text, “The Cult you’re in” Kalle Lasn, discusses a cult-like nature of consumer culture on Americans. Lasn uses the work ‘cult’ as a metaphor; he does not mean an actual cult but American consumers seem to be in a cult-like nature. The ideal example of Lasns argument is the text, “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch”, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, goes in great depth of the life of the CEO, Mike Jeffries, of Abercrombie and Fitch. Denizet Lewis’s piece on Jeffries life displays how accurate Lasns claim is about American consumers in the cult-like atmosphere.

The Hmong are a group of people who originally lived in the mountains overlooking Laos, China, Vietnam, and Thailand-- though most have since emigrated to other countries and areas due to political conflict. They have valued self-sufficiency and resisted authority throughout history, as they have constantly been the minority and often seen as the Other and persecuted for being such. Still, many have managed to survive and preserve much of their culture, such as religious beliefs and shamanic healing practices.

This applied theory paper will analyze both the macro and micro analysis of the Novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman (Fadiman, 1997). In the book “The Spirit Catches You and Falls Down”, the character Lia illness resulted in a cultural divide between the Hmong culture and the American culture. Throughout this paper both the conflict theory and the family systems theory will be used to examine themes of behaviors among the characters in the text. The family and medical team use the applications of a number of different social work theories to navigate through her illness implementing a number of different strategies to nurse her to health. The author Fadiman explores the Lee’s family

For this paper, I read the graphic novel, One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry. Barry’s novel is similar to Kochalka’s series, American Elf since her life is the main plot and focus. Like the title, Barry divulges into instances from her life that could be considered a demon, or something negative. For example, the first demon she discussed was about her first love and how much he differed from one of her boyfriends. This was considered a demon to her because of how he treated her and how she felt better off without him. In a way, this novel is Barry’s method of expressing her negative moments and sharing them to the public. Not only does this graphic novel encourage others to speak about their demons, Barry is healing herself from her negative

     The traditional Hmong live a horticultural society they depend on domesticated plants, they are well-adapted on soils of the tropical rain forests and poor soil places which are unsuitable for intense agriculture. Prehistoric Hmong are thought to have moved from Eurasia and made a few stops at Siberia. As their custom they settled in the highlands (mountains) from Vietnam and Laos and later in Thailand. They inherited the name “Miao”, from living in the mountains. Today Five million Hmong reside in China, more than any other country. The Hmong people have straight black hair and have a short, sturdy stature.

The phenomenon of consumerism is quiet powerful due to the impact on individual’s lives. Society has come to the point, happiness is associated with consumption. However, the way consumerism works, is if the items being purchased gives temporary happiness. There individuals are always buying the latest products to remain happy. In the text, “The Cult you’re in” Kalle Lasn, discusses a cult-like nature of consumer culture on Americans. Lasn uses the work ‘cult’ as a metaphor; he does not mean an actual cult but American consumers seem to be in a cult-like nature. The ideal example of Lasns argument is the text, “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch”, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, goes in great depth of the life of the CEO, Mike Jeffries, of

As I continue to read on to the second article titled “I Think, Therefore I IM” written by Jennifer Lee, It begins with how Jacqueline Harding starts to prepare a presentation on common writing mistakes. She tells us how she adds text abbreviations to her notes as she asked her students how many of them use shortcuts in their writing. She expected, most of them raised their hands. To set the students straight, Ms.Harding decided to let them draw a line between formal and conversational writing.

Hi, Margaret! If you’re seeking to supplant or swap out Augusten Burroughs—a breathtaking wordsmith in his own right—in favor of a female with equal if not superior compositional abilities and acumen, one super, superb, and splendid starting point might be Mary MacLane. Many a journalist who composes confessionals should thank people such as her and perhaps even mail their estates royalty checks. The bluntness inherent within the style associated with her autobiographical work is somewhere in their literary deoxyribonucleic acid nine-and-three-quarter times out of ten. MacLane, a young woman who had been alive on this Earth for nineteen years and lived in Butte, Montana, pulled off a gargantuan upset over established literature traditions when her I Await the Devil’s Coming got published during the year of 1902.

“Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body”(Coates 5). The phrase “lose my body” is reiterated numerous times in Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The topic/theme of this piece of literature may be discernable as innocence as Ta-Nehisi profusely speaks of how his upbringing changed and affected his perspective on life. Coates uses a multitude of examples to portray this from how he witnessed another boy almost being shot at a young age to him learning and understanding the laws and “culture of the streets”(Coates 24) as who and even more who not to mess with(Coates 23). Coates effectively uses these examples as perfect representations of living in an American ghetto as well as how since birth blacks do not “own” their body and are susceptible to lose it.

The Hmong are known to have tightly knitted communities that are created through ties of kinship in a clan based society. This sense of kinship is essential as a catalyst for the Hmong in developing and producing a strong sense of nationalism despite the fact that they do not have a recognized political state or homeland. This is especially important as the Hmong population has been dispersed to all parts of the world following their involvement in a multitude of geopolitical struggles. Despite having a scattered global population, the Hmong are continuously finding ways to remain distinct and as a unified people, especially here in the United States. The Hmong create and reproduce a sense of nationalism despite facing cultural decline and having relatively separated communities built around different urban centers across the United States. Additionally, this research will discuss how the sense of nationalism can be a way for the Hmong to move forward despite facing cultural decline. In this research, these elements will be explained and explored through Michael Billig’s theory on banal nationalism (Billig, 1995).

Reading has impacted my life in many ways. The two books that impacted my life greatly are Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick. It helped me through every crisis I had in life. It increased my understanding on things I knew little about. I am very appreciative to the authors of these novels because they helped me to grow into the person I am today. Tuesdays with Morrie gave me some helpful advice that others could not give me. It taught me that we must have no regrets and should always be true to ourselves and others. Never Fall Down informed me of all the violence other countries face and the hardships they went through. It taught me to love for my family because most of those families who went through

The Lao’s culture, including their traditions, values, and shared identity continues to be passed down to each generation. Laos descendants of prior generations have created traditions that continue to be practiced within their way of living. How and what we consider valuable or the norm within our culture is not always similar to another individual’s culture. Completing the interviews and research on the Laos culture has given me an accurate understanding about the differences and similarities that are shared amongst themselves and the Mexican culture.

Sacrifice is necessary in getting through life. We sacrifice in order to reach something of a higher value, but in Mother Teresa’s case was reaching God. Living in a world full of low-wage income families, homelessness, and so on, and we pass them by without ever needing/wanting to pay them anything, so at least they could live a better life. Mother Teresa is an example of self-sacrifice for the God. As stated by Father Joseph Langford,M.C. in the Article “Sacrifice” written by Emily Stimpson, “Holiness is living God’s life, and God has told us that he is love — not just any kind of love, how- ever, but a love that is self-emptying and self-gift” (Stimpson). Decisively, this quote points out to what sacrifice is. Passion and love are vital to human beings. She has been stated in Gloria Steinem’s book, “Herstory Women Who changed the World,” she had an huge impact on many people’s lives and “Today, on seven continents and in eighty-seven countries, her mission “to service the poor purely for the love of God” continues” (Ashby and Ohrn 238). Being this, she was an important person in her century and looking back upon it she made a huge impact in variety of people’s lives throughout the years till she died. Mother Teresa 's objective of conveying contentment and gaiety to the impecunious through self sacrifice elevates the components of altruism/selflessness and adoration that are so imperative to the foundation of peace. Vitally, Mother Teresa was