taught me that people see and interpret things differently and that cultural beliefs are not the only factors that influence differences in opinion. The community‚ environment‚ and even one’s friends can also contribute to the way a person interprets things. One example is‚ “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚” a book about the struggles faced by the Lee family after emigrating from Laos to America. Foua delivered her 14th child‚ only this
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medical remedies and the language spoken. I know first-hand that my mother would prefer to have a Ghanaian physician‚ as opposed to the general white American doctor. Anne Fadiman wrote a successful award-winning book called‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ which highlights how the cultural differences between the Hmong culture and American medicine jeopardized the health of a little girl named Lia Lee. The story brings into light the topic of Medical anthropology‚ which is the study of medical
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Can You Be Honest With Your Friends My sister is a person whom one might define as socially awkward. While neither of us possess the gift of tact‚ I have become slightly more adept a maneuvering unfamiliar social situations‚ whereas she avoids them wherever and whenever possible. We both have the same handicap: that being that we don’t possess a filter. Whereas most people know that it constitutes poor manners to point out a hanger from a perfect stranger’s nose‚ we feel it is our civic duty
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"You have been my friends. That in itself is a tremendous thing." - E.B. White - "I always knew that when I looked back on the times I cried I would smile. But I never knew that when I looked back on the times I smiled I would cry." "My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my desperation." - Helen Keller - "One day at a time‚ this is enough. Don’t
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In Chapter 1 of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ Fadiman demonstrates cultural relativism towards the Hmong culture by including very detailed history‚ facts and procedures found in Hmong culture. When explaining the long process of pregnancy and birth in Hmong culture‚ she does not make and claims for or against these rituals. She does not compare the cultures rituals to another culture. Fadiman simply states facts and explains the steps it takes for a woman to give birth to a child. She
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Catches You and You Fall Down tells the story of Lia Lee‚ a Hmong child with epilepsy‚ whose tragic downfall reveals the dangers of a lack of cross-cultural communication in the medical profession. At the age of three months‚ Lia had her first seizure caused by the sound of a door being slammed shut‚ by her older sister Yer. Their parents‚ Foua and Nao Kao believed that the sound of the door had caused Lia’s soul to flee‚ they called her illness “qaug dab peg”‚ which means “the spirit catches you and
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”‚ a novel‚ written by Anne Fadiman‚ takes an inside look at the Hmong culture‚ their history‚ and trails Lia’s‚ a Hmong child of the Lees‚ medical experience with her American doctors and how a clash of two cultures impacted her outcome. Lia has epilepsy or as the Hmong say‚ “the spirit catches you and you fall down” (Fadiman‚ 2012‚ p. 30). The book focuses on Lia’s care‚ which results in brain death‚ the medical staffs’ actions/behaviors‚ what improvements
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The question of readership plays a large role in the methodology of Fadiman’s novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The terminology and language within the novel clearly illustrates that the novel was intended for readers that have grown up surrounded by Westernized influence. The opening chapter of the novel depicts the typical birth methods within Hmong’s traditional beliefs. The language within this chapter specifically implies that readers must already understand modern medicine with
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“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚” tells a story about a Hmong child Lia Lee‚ who suffers her first epileptic seizure at three months of age. Her treatment becomes difficult to go through because of her parents‚ Nao Kao and Foua‚ inability to speak English. They cannot speak to the doctors and many problems follow because of it. It started when Lia was three months old when her sister had slammed the front door. Quickly after‚ “Lia’s eyes rolled up‚ her arms jerked over her head‚ and she
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down In the book‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ Anne Fadiman tells us the story of a little girl named Lia Lee‚ caught between the differences of two cultures. The differences in Lia’s parents’ knowledge‚ abilities‚ and understanding of the culture they were surrounded by and the rationalized facts that Western medicine and its culture provide bring us to the borderland of the two. When these two cultures meet Lia’s life is put in danger‚ not
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