In the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, Bich Minh Nguyen explores post-Vietnam war after her family’s migration to the United States through her tale of sorrow and acceptance. Although Bich is separated from her mother when she leaves Vietnam at eight months old, her father remarries and she is given a step mom. Whom, Up until the middle of the book, Bich only calls her Rosa and it is only after reading into a few chapters that she starts to refer to her as her mother. A mother carries her baby for nine months before any other person is able to communicate with the child. Thus, the mother has nine months to build a relationship with her child like no one else is capable of. The relationship between a mother and daughter is often thought of as a bond; unable to be created, and only surfacing through the natural method of pregnancy. Some mother/daughter relationships are very tight, where the mother and daughter may be best friends, while other times the two can talk once a week but still feel as though they were together every second. Bich and Rosa never really have a strong connection and often disagree on much, and thus, Bich doesn’t have that natural connection with anybody in her life because a birth mom is the only one that can produce it. In knowing this, Bich is missing a part of her life that is very essential to not only grow up in a structured family, but also in having that person that she can share a connection with and to be by their side for the tough times she goes through. By looking at Bich’s uneasy relationship with her step mom Rosa, I will argue that Bich uses separation from her past, her family and her friends when she tries to migrate into America to withstand the trauma she has been through and still enduring, which is important because it uncovers the character of Bich and her ability to overcome this sense of separation she is given.
One of the first interactions between Bich and Rosa is when she mentions how Rosa slid into their lives as young Vietnamese kids. “After dinner, she said that children should not be riding tricycles around the house. Those belonged outside. She asked us to please tidy up our toys. She said we shouldn’t be eating so much candy” (Nguyen 22). It is clear that Rosa lives and was raised in a different world then Bich and her sister. Rosa grew up with both her parents around during a time without so much hatred towards Rosa’s Mexican roots compared to the hate for the Vietnamese in the Western world. The way that Rosa begins to change Bich and her sister’s lifestyle is something that confuses Bich, because she is still at the age to learn about life. She is young and learning who she is and what she wants to become. Rosa is beginning to change the life Bich has worked so hard to be accustomed to; this new American ideal of living. Rosa not only becomes the motherly figure in Bich’s life, but she also is this new life in Bich’s world. She develops habits and says words that Bich doesn’t know of. Although, through out the book, Rosa begins to accept and even force the Vietnamese culture on to Bich and her sister, she is a reason why Bich is separated by her culture. With Rosa being a non-Vietnamese woman, Bich is able to see that there is a different way to live then her Vietnamese roots and the American way, and Bich is able to start finding out new ideals and new customs. Through these, she is able to decide if she wants to be apart of Rosa’s culture, the Vietnamese culture or the American culture. “Although she loved her family, she had problems adjusting to a Latina stepmother, Rosa, who entered the scene when she was 3. As Nguyen grew, she began to wonder what had happened to her real mother. And, in the shadow of Anh, her prettier sister, she struggled to forge an identity of her own” (Fong-Torres 1). Bich begins to grow and see that Rosa is different from the American people because of the food she cooks and way she handles Bich and Ahn and this leads to the idea of Bich being different from the American kids in school.
The other students at school all have “white moms,” who bake homemade cookies and cook meatloaf for dinner. Rosa is different. Bich, like most young girls, just wants to be included and be American like the others at school. She begins to get irritated with the ways in which Rosa lives. She mentions that, “These small difference accumulated within my growing stockpile of shame and resentment, as if Rosa herself were preventing me from fitting in and being like everyone else” (Nguyen 52). This prevention of Bich fitting in with the American kids in school initiates the barrier between Rosa and Bich where Bich begins to build a hatred for the differences she has and starts wanting something more; something that is separated from Rosa and her non-conformative ways. She begins to want the values of America, and, like “The younger generation of young Vietnamese growing up in California were “contaminated by American values” that discouraged respect for elders and for the community,” (Hoskins 308) she begins to disrespect Rosa by yelling at her and turning down her cooking. The Vietnamese culture consists of much respect towards the elders and Bich had learned this value since she was young, but when she sees the kids in her school and the differences in the way they act around parents, she wants to be like them. This clash of culture alludes Bich to disrespect Rosa and become a “bratty” American teen rebelling against her parents. Not only does Bich feel the usual pre-teen rebellion, but she also feels the anxiety from deciding what culture (Vietnamese, American, Mexican) is right for her.
As Bich gets older and wiser, she develops a reluctance to conform like many Vietnamese immigrants do. Although they made it to America and were able to find a place to settle, they still are challenged to integrate into society. “The additional challenge they face, however, is an entrenched readership that demands a certain narrative, having developed an acquired taste in Vietnamese American cultural production,” (August 1). As an author of a memoir, Bich develops differences from the American culture and can be seen through her work. Bich begins to wish for the distance from her family because she is made fun of for being different. “On our first foray in school my sister and I had encountered kids who laughed and pointed at us, pressing back the edges of their eyes with their palms while they chanted, ‘Ching-Chong, ching chong!’” (Nguyen 75). She begins to see that people in America live their life differently then what she was used to, and, as she learns these new American ways of living, she likes them even better then her own. She realizes that if she can separate herself from the differences the kids are making fun of her for, like what she eats and how she dresses, then she can eventually stop the kids from making fun of her, and enjoy the American lifestyle she adores. With the absence of her Vietnamese culture, Bich is able to conform to everyone else, and this is not only making the other kids accept her, with her good grades and home gadgets that are very “American,” but it is also allowing Bich to feel more inclined to the new culture and give her a feeling of being apart of something she longs for. This thought provokes Bich to deny Rosa’s urging for the Vietnamese culture to stay in the children’s lives, and causes the distance between the two. This separation from her Vietnamese family allows for Bich to feel like the other students, and allows her to let go of the trauma she is going through from being so different. She is able to attach to a minority group; something that is necessary in a young girls life.
Although the longing for an American life rather then her Vietnamese culture allows Bich to feel more comfortable with the other, more American kids in school, she begins to develop a separation from the American culture as well. This feeling develops while Bich understands the trauma she is going through can not be fixed with a simple change in herself, because that change is not that simple. After begging and pleading Rosa to cook American food, Rosa gives in and Bich sees a separation she didn’t quite imagine. “But we could not enjoy it. My sisters glowered and Rosa spoke to no one. The food itself began to feel heavy, slicked with the artificial flavorings and colorings promised right on the packages. I didn’t know how much u could take of such silence and abundance” (Nguyen 128). With the need to separate herself from the Vietnamese culture, comes the realization that Bich also needs a separation from her family as well. Just changing the food doesn’t change the way Bich feels about her life. Even though Rosa cooked American food and she is eating the American way, Bich still is not happy with herself and where she is. This shows that Bich needs more. She needs to be separated from the people who keep her Vietnamese roots in order and, to surpass the affects of the trauma she is going through needs to be separated from everything she has known to be life. “These ambivalent feelings perhaps stem from the fact that Vietnamese women and children, now in a foreign land, are reworking and redefining their biculturality and their hybirdity in the family arena” (Chan 305). Bich is growing up and as she is, she is developing her own life and figuring out who she wants to be. By separating herself, she gets to feel more American, with nobody telling her how she should dress or what she should eat.
Bich develops as an American as she grows and is able to forgo the American way of living. Through out the book, Bich was always being forced to eat what Rosa and Noi cook, and dress how they want her to dress, which causes a lot of turmoil between Rosa and her and also between her body and mind. Rosa tries to fulfill the role of mother, but in doing so, only causes Bich to rebel against her views, even though she changes to Vietnamese culture ultimately. Only when she parts ways does Bich understand the situation she was in and realize that Rosa was only trying to help Bich fit in; something that Rosa didn’t have when she was trying to blend into the new society. The separation of her home and family gave an insight into Rosa and how she was also different like Bich. Bich begins to come to peace with her trauma she went through by realizing that Rosa was just like her, trying to fit into a world that she knew nothing about nor had an easy time fitting in. Bich’s body and mind come together when Bich decides that she must be her own person, like nobody else and accepts that. She even, after meeting her real mother, sees that her birth mom is nothing to her as a mom should be. Bich becomes a character of both Vietnamese and American roots, and she finally understands that this is who she has to be; “This Vietnamese-born American girl returning for a visit” (Nguyen 253). She understands, to a certain level, that she isn’t Vietnamese fully because she lived in America for so long and was raised and went to school with the American people, and, she sees that the American kids are different from her as well. She realizes that she, herself, is a girl that is a little of both, and that’s ok because it is who she is and it is what has made her into the strong person she is today.
Bich is able to overcome the separation from the American kids in school by ironically separating herself from her culture. She develops a way to overcome the trauma she unfolded from being ostracized in school. Bich realizes that she is different and can be different and still live in America. Even though her other siblings are fitting into society much better then she is, at least on the surface, she starts to understand that being different is acceptable, and after she realizes that Rosa was different as well and still made life enjoyable, then Bich is able to consider her life as something that can be lived and lived well. The separation she uses from her family allows her to melt with the American culture in a better way and the separation from the American culture allows her to acknowledge her roots more fully. These two separations provide Bich with the means of becoming a Vietnamese-American and surviving the trauma she is forced into from the fall of Saigon and the refugees of the Vietnamese war.
Works Cited
One of the first interactions between Bich and Rosa is when she mentions how Rosa slid into their lives as young Vietnamese kids. “After dinner, she said that children should not be riding tricycles around the house. Those belonged outside. She asked us to please tidy up our toys. She said we shouldn’t be eating so much candy” (Nguyen 22). It is clear that Rosa lives and was raised in a different world then Bich and her sister. Rosa grew up with both her parents around during a time without so much hatred towards Rosa’s Mexican roots compared to the hate for the Vietnamese in the Western world. The way that Rosa begins to change Bich and her sister’s lifestyle is something that confuses Bich, because she is still at the age to learn about life. She is young and learning who she is and what she wants to become. Rosa is beginning to change the life Bich has worked so hard to be accustomed to; this new American ideal of living. Rosa not only becomes the motherly figure in Bich’s life, but she also is this new life in Bich’s world. She develops habits and says words that Bich doesn’t know of. Although, through out the book, Rosa begins to accept and even force the Vietnamese culture on to Bich and her sister, she is a reason why Bich is separated by her culture. With Rosa being a non-Vietnamese woman, Bich is able to see that there is a different way to live then her Vietnamese roots and the American way, and Bich is able to start finding out new ideals and new customs. Through these, she is able to decide if she wants to be apart of Rosa’s culture, the Vietnamese culture or the American culture. “Although she loved her family, she had problems adjusting to a Latina stepmother, Rosa, who entered the scene when she was 3. As Nguyen grew, she began to wonder what had happened to her real mother. And, in the shadow of Anh, her prettier sister, she struggled to forge an identity of her own” (Fong-Torres 1). Bich begins to grow and see that Rosa is different from the American people because of the food she cooks and way she handles Bich and Ahn and this leads to the idea of Bich being different from the American kids in school.
The other students at school all have “white moms,” who bake homemade cookies and cook meatloaf for dinner. Rosa is different. Bich, like most young girls, just wants to be included and be American like the others at school. She begins to get irritated with the ways in which Rosa lives. She mentions that, “These small difference accumulated within my growing stockpile of shame and resentment, as if Rosa herself were preventing me from fitting in and being like everyone else” (Nguyen 52). This prevention of Bich fitting in with the American kids in school initiates the barrier between Rosa and Bich where Bich begins to build a hatred for the differences she has and starts wanting something more; something that is separated from Rosa and her non-conformative ways. She begins to want the values of America, and, like “The younger generation of young Vietnamese growing up in California were “contaminated by American values” that discouraged respect for elders and for the community,” (Hoskins 308) she begins to disrespect Rosa by yelling at her and turning down her cooking. The Vietnamese culture consists of much respect towards the elders and Bich had learned this value since she was young, but when she sees the kids in her school and the differences in the way they act around parents, she wants to be like them. This clash of culture alludes Bich to disrespect Rosa and become a “bratty” American teen rebelling against her parents. Not only does Bich feel the usual pre-teen rebellion, but she also feels the anxiety from deciding what culture (Vietnamese, American, Mexican) is right for her.
As Bich gets older and wiser, she develops a reluctance to conform like many Vietnamese immigrants do. Although they made it to America and were able to find a place to settle, they still are challenged to integrate into society. “The additional challenge they face, however, is an entrenched readership that demands a certain narrative, having developed an acquired taste in Vietnamese American cultural production,” (August 1). As an author of a memoir, Bich develops differences from the American culture and can be seen through her work. Bich begins to wish for the distance from her family because she is made fun of for being different. “On our first foray in school my sister and I had encountered kids who laughed and pointed at us, pressing back the edges of their eyes with their palms while they chanted, ‘Ching-Chong, ching chong!’” (Nguyen 75). She begins to see that people in America live their life differently then what she was used to, and, as she learns these new American ways of living, she likes them even better then her own. She realizes that if she can separate herself from the differences the kids are making fun of her for, like what she eats and how she dresses, then she can eventually stop the kids from making fun of her, and enjoy the American lifestyle she adores. With the absence of her Vietnamese culture, Bich is able to conform to everyone else, and this is not only making the other kids accept her, with her good grades and home gadgets that are very “American,” but it is also allowing Bich to feel more inclined to the new culture and give her a feeling of being apart of something she longs for. This thought provokes Bich to deny Rosa’s urging for the Vietnamese culture to stay in the children’s lives, and causes the distance between the two. This separation from her Vietnamese family allows for Bich to feel like the other students, and allows her to let go of the trauma she is going through from being so different. She is able to attach to a minority group; something that is necessary in a young girls life.
Although the longing for an American life rather then her Vietnamese culture allows Bich to feel more comfortable with the other, more American kids in school, she begins to develop a separation from the American culture as well. This feeling develops while Bich understands the trauma she is going through can not be fixed with a simple change in herself, because that change is not that simple. After begging and pleading Rosa to cook American food, Rosa gives in and Bich sees a separation she didn’t quite imagine. “But we could not enjoy it. My sisters glowered and Rosa spoke to no one. The food itself began to feel heavy, slicked with the artificial flavorings and colorings promised right on the packages. I didn’t know how much u could take of such silence and abundance” (Nguyen 128). With the need to separate herself from the Vietnamese culture, comes the realization that Bich also needs a separation from her family as well. Just changing the food doesn’t change the way Bich feels about her life. Even though Rosa cooked American food and she is eating the American way, Bich still is not happy with herself and where she is. This shows that Bich needs more. She needs to be separated from the people who keep her Vietnamese roots in order and, to surpass the affects of the trauma she is going through needs to be separated from everything she has known to be life. “These ambivalent feelings perhaps stem from the fact that Vietnamese women and children, now in a foreign land, are reworking and redefining their biculturality and their hybirdity in the family arena” (Chan 305). Bich is growing up and as she is, she is developing her own life and figuring out who she wants to be. By separating herself, she gets to feel more American, with nobody telling her how she should dress or what she should eat.
Bich develops as an American as she grows and is able to forgo the American way of living. Through out the book, Bich was always being forced to eat what Rosa and Noi cook, and dress how they want her to dress, which causes a lot of turmoil between Rosa and her and also between her body and mind. Rosa tries to fulfill the role of mother, but in doing so, only causes Bich to rebel against her views, even though she changes to Vietnamese culture ultimately. Only when she parts ways does Bich understand the situation she was in and realize that Rosa was only trying to help Bich fit in; something that Rosa didn’t have when she was trying to blend into the new society. The separation of her home and family gave an insight into Rosa and how she was also different like Bich. Bich begins to come to peace with her trauma she went through by realizing that Rosa was just like her, trying to fit into a world that she knew nothing about nor had an easy time fitting in. Bich’s body and mind come together when Bich decides that she must be her own person, like nobody else and accepts that. She even, after meeting her real mother, sees that her birth mom is nothing to her as a mom should be. Bich becomes a character of both Vietnamese and American roots, and she finally understands that this is who she has to be; “This Vietnamese-born American girl returning for a visit” (Nguyen 253). She understands, to a certain level, that she isn’t Vietnamese fully because she lived in America for so long and was raised and went to school with the American people, and, she sees that the American kids are different from her as well. She realizes that she, herself, is a girl that is a little of both, and that’s ok because it is who she is and it is what has made her into the strong person she is today.
Bich is able to overcome the separation from the American kids in school by ironically separating herself from her culture. She develops a way to overcome the trauma she unfolded from being ostracized in school. Bich realizes that she is different and can be different and still live in America. Even though her other siblings are fitting into society much better then she is, at least on the surface, she starts to understand that being different is acceptable, and after she realizes that Rosa was different as well and still made life enjoyable, then Bich is able to consider her life as something that can be lived and lived well. The separation she uses from her family allows her to melt with the American culture in a better way and the separation from the American culture allows her to acknowledge her roots more fully. These two separations provide Bich with the means of becoming a Vietnamese-American and surviving the trauma she is forced into from the fall of Saigon and the refugees of the Vietnamese war.
Works Cited
- Stealing Buddha’s Dinner. New York: Penguin, 2008. This essay on Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen Literature Analysis was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it.
- Nostalgic and candid, deeply satisfying and minutely observed, Stealing Buddha's Dinner is a unique vision of the immigrant experience and a lyrical ode to how identity is often shaped by the things we long for. ©2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.; 2008 Bich Minh Nguyen. More from the same.
Stealing Buddha s Dinner Book Description: A coming-of-age memoir by a Vietnamese American recounts her struggles for an American identity in the pre-politically correct climate of the Midwest and her passion for American food in the face of her family's Buddhist lifestyle. See what Rachel Judd (racjudd) has discovered on Pinterest, the world's biggest collection of ideas.
Stealing Buddha's Dinner Pdf
Bich Minh 'Beth' Nguyen (born 1974 Saigon) is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.[1] She is the author of the novels Short Girls, which won a 2010 American Book Award, and Pioneer Girl, and a memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner.
Life[edit]
Bich Minh Nguyen was born in 1974 in Saigon, which her family fled by ship the following year. After staying in refugee camps in Guam and at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, they settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.[2]She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of Fine Arts and is married to novelist Porter Shreve. They have two children. In 2005, she received a PEN/Jerard Award.[3] She taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco, and is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches fiction and creative non-fiction writing.[4]
Works[edit]
- Pioneer Girl: a novel. Penguin. 2014. ISBN978-0-698-15137-6.
- Short Girls: a novel. Penguin. 2009. ISBN978-0-670-02081-2.
- Stealing Buddha's Dinner. Penguin. 2008. ISBN978-0-14-311303-4.
Stealing Buddha's Dinner Quotes
Anthologies[edit]
- Reinder Van Til; Gordon L. Olson, eds. (2007). 'The Good Immigrant Student'. Thin ice: coming of age in Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN978-0-8028-2478-3.
- Alice Peck, ed. (2008). 'The Plum's Eye'. Bread, Body, Spirit: Finding the Sacred in Food. SkyLight Paths Publishing. ISBN978-1-59473-242-3.
- Lorraine López, ed. (2009). An angle of vision. University of Michigan Press. ISBN978-0-472-05078-9.
Reviews[edit]
- Marion Winik (July 24, 2009). ''Short Girls' by Bich Minh Nguyen'. The Los Angeles Times.
- Julie Tran (December 6, 2010). ''Stealing Buddha's Dinner' by Bich Minh Nguyen'. Lariat. Archived from the original on 2010-12-30.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- BEN FONG-TORRES (February 4, 2007). 'Hungry Heart'. The New York Times.
References[edit]
- ^http://penguinspeakersbureau.com/speaker/201
- ^http://www.kwls.org/authors/bich-minh-nguyen/
- ^'PEN/Jerard Fund Award Winners'. PEN America. Retrieved 22 May 2020.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^'Nguyen, Beth (Bich Minh)'. English. 6765. Retrieved 2020-05-21.Check date values in:
|date=(help)
Stealing Buddha's Dinner Summary
External links[edit]
- 'Welcome to the Great Michigan Read', Bich Minh Nguyen
- 'Bich Minh Nguyen', 29th Key West Literary Seminar
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