The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
1st chapter reflections:
This chapter which introduced me to Lia’s family was interesting. I was shocked to read that in her mother’s country of Laos, Lia would have been born by her mother squatting on the floor! They also used special created remedies to solve health issues without relying on hospitals or clinics. It was also interesting to read how important the Hmong people believed in sprits and how their life decisions where decided around the sprit actions. For example, they believed that male sprit’s held up their house roof, if the male’s placenta was buried near the central pillar of the house. Lia was even blessed by the elders because her parents believed that it was a way of protecting her from ever getting sick. If anything, reading this chapter quickly gave me a quick preview of the clash that Lia’s cultural beliefs will have with the American doctors when she gets sick in the future chapters. However, I’m hoping that this book will pick up a little faster and have less history moving forward (being honest lol)
2nd chapter reflections:
This chapter started in a class at college; it continued to explain how a Hmong student spent extra time on his speech to talk about how people make fish soup in his culture. Once I finished the first page in this chapter, I understood that the young man was trying to explain to his class that we as humans should be more careful about how we select our foods because we are all connected in different ways. However, I didn’t pick up whether his class was interested after he was done with his speech. This chapter preceded to dig deeper into the Hmong history by detailing their live in north China; N. China was were the Hmong people was subjected to wars, because they did not like to be told what to do or how to behave as a people. However, the Chinese did not like the Hmong people and called them degrading names because they wanted to overrule them.
1st chapter reflections:
This chapter which introduced me to Lia’s family was interesting. I was shocked to read that in her mother’s country of Laos, Lia would have been born by her mother squatting on the floor! They also used special created remedies to solve health issues without relying on hospitals or clinics. It was also interesting to read how important the Hmong people believed in sprits and how their life decisions where decided around the sprit actions. For example, they believed that male sprit’s held up their house roof, if the male’s placenta was buried near the central pillar of the house. Lia was even blessed by the elders because her parents believed that it was a way of protecting her from ever getting sick. If anything, reading this chapter quickly gave me a quick preview of the clash that Lia’s cultural beliefs will have with the American doctors when she gets sick in the future chapters. However, I’m hoping that this book will pick up a little faster and have less history moving forward (being honest lol)
2nd chapter reflections:
This chapter started in a class at college; it continued to explain how a Hmong student spent extra time on his speech to talk about how people make fish soup in his culture. Once I finished the first page in this chapter, I understood that the young man was trying to explain to his class that we as humans should be more careful about how we select our foods because we are all connected in different ways. However, I didn’t pick up whether his class was interested after he was done with his speech. This chapter preceded to dig deeper into the Hmong history by detailing their live in north China; N. China was were the Hmong people was subjected to wars, because they did not like to be told what to do or how to behave as a people. However, the Chinese did not like the Hmong people and called them degrading names because they wanted to overrule them.