When I first read about Bich's experience with books in Reading Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen, I saw the reading primarily as a way for her to escape from the reality of her family and also her school life. However, after further consideration, while it is true that reading can act as an escape for someone like Bich who has a hard time fitting in, the evidence seems to point instead to a form of self-othering. For example, on page 152 Bich points out that she reads so that she can be alone but also because it keeps her from being alone. In this way, it seems as if Bich is separating herself from her family by reading and is instead choosing to interact with characters from the books she reads.
While Bich seems able to find solace in the stories of perfect Anglo families, she seeks to be like them just like she seeks to be like the families she is surrounded with in her real life. Even in her imaginings, it seems as if Bich does not fit in, and this could be representative of the idea that Bich will continue to not fit in as long as she does not accept herself for who she is. This connection to books is directly related to Bich's hunger to fit in through food and pop culture. Bich reads more and more and imagines herself as the characters she reads about because as she consumes books, it is almost as if she is consuming the culture of the characters within the books. However, like with food, instead of it connecting Bich to who she really is, it instead gets mixed up into the pot of all the things Bich tries to make herself be. Bich cannot directly relate herself to characters like Laura Ingalls because Laura can fit in while Bich cannot. Also, since Bich has not yet been able to see herself as both American and Vietnamese, she continues to be confused as she feels she is the rope in this sort of culture tug-of-war. This causes a lot of confusion for Bich, and so she further others herself by trying to fit into one mold or the other and never thinking to fuse them together to get the perfect fit.
Curious to know if you think Bich's failure to "fuse them together" stems from her desire to belong? As though she wants to be accepted so much by one of these cultures that it blinds her to her identity as an individual? Because I agree with you but at the same time I think it's a more complex situation because she does think about fusing them together but she's tired of being alone, and it seems like if she claimed that identity and truly owned it in the Midwest circa 1980--she would have been even more isolated and alone.
ReplyDelete^Rebecca B.
DeleteThe view you gave on self-othering is a great perspective to think of. I did ponder this for a minute because could it be all Bich's fault for not being able to make relationships. I came with this proposition, I think we would have to look back to how the father raised the children. Before Rosa, Bich was given anything she wanted by her father and she learn most of her customs through television and music. These outlets of education, I would say have created a romanticized idea of how life suppose to be. The television shows are created for the "white American family" and Pop music has some soppy love message. So I would argue that when she picks up a book, it is not that she is isolating herself from the world, but getting a better understanding of it. I would like to remind you that, Bich was always told to be quite when she would ask questions. The difference between books and people, books allows one to dive into and make the story for themselves, while people can shift the tale to their convenience. The books would be more of a creation to self than self-othering. The rejection from family might have had an effect to her vocal expression, but we do know that she can express herself because of the journal she keeps
ReplyDelete^^Mark L
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