Final Paper: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” By: Anne Fadiman Meghan Maloney 26 April 2013 To understand the struggles that the Hmong people face living in America it is important to understand where they come from and what they have gone through. The majority of the Hmong people originate from the mountainous country of Laos. The mountains created isolation from the neighboring cultures and cultivated a clan identity. They were part of a society where everyone worked together
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Being culturally competent is essential in caring for the lives of others. As a nurse you will be caring for individuals and families who may or may not have the same beliefs and values and yourself. Despite the differences the nurse must be able to ask the appropriate questions‚ seek out tools that are going to help the client and family understand the importance of their care‚ and feel comfortable when
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Summary and Reading Log Chapter 1 - Birth Chapter 1 goes through the traditional birthing methods and traditions of the Hmong people. One of the most significant traditions is burying the placenta. The placenta has to be strategically buried in a specific spot under the homes dirt floor or when the person dies its soul has to travel back to the placenta. This chapter also introduces the characters Nao Kao and Foua Lee. Nao is husband and father of 13
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Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Journal #2 In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ by Anne Fadiman‚ Lia Lee is a very sickly child‚ and is now unfortunately a “vegetable.” Much to the hospitals chagrin‚ they in fact are the reason why Lia is in a comatose state. The Lee’s argued with the doctors throughout Lia’s entire 4 years of medical strife with epilepsy about the medication and the way they were treating Lia. Fadiman juxtaposes the differences of the Hmong way of healing people:
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December 11‚ 2012 Section 1: Who is the one to delineate fault for a miscommunication and misunderstanding between two cultures? In Anne Fadiman’s novel‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ she begins the novel as an attempt to allocate responsibility for the mistreatment and exacerbation of Lia Lee’s epilepsy. The tension between the Hmong and United States medical culture exemplified the strain in America between a foreign culture dependent on rituals and society’s norm. As the novel progress
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illness may be completely different than another. These different views and opinions can often cause cultures to collide when a doctor is summoned to treat an individual of a different culture than their own. Anne Fadiman’s book‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ tells the story of an epileptic Hmong child and her collision of two cultures. Lia Lee began suffering seizures at a young age and was diagnosed with epilepsy by American doctors. Her family however believed her illness was caused
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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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The Spirit 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
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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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and physical ailment. According to Fadiman (1997)‚ “…the noise of the door had been so profoundly frightening that her soul had fled her body and become lost. They recognized the resulting symptoms as qaug dab peg‚ which means ‘the spirit catches you and you fall down’”(p.20). To the Lee family‚ Lia’s condition was as revered as it was frightening. While a person with qaug dab peg was traditionally held in high esteem in the Hmong culture‚ it was also terrifying enough that the Lee’s rushed Lia
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