A Warrior's Son In Perfume Dreams Analysis

Notes of a Warrior’s Son in Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora was written in 2005 by Andrew Lam. In the beginning of the story, Lam talks about that his father, Thi Quang Lam, was a general who was proud of his job and fighting in the civil war. As the Vietnam war began, the president of Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, wanted South Vietnam’s military to protect Sagion. As the war ended, his father left immediately, which Lam and his family were already in Guam with other refugees. Few days after, Lam arrived the United States and lived in the apartment with only two bedrooms in San Francisco. His mother cried almost every night because she had not hear about news from her husband since the day she was in the refugee camp. Fortunately, her mother received a call from her husband at one afternoon, making the whole family hope and happiness …show more content…
As he grew up with “two traditions, two languages, to sets of behaviors” (Lam, 34), he had to adjust himself in this environment. His family raised him up with Confucian ideas, which they would not said “I love you”, “I am proud of you” or “I forgive you” (Lam, 48) to him. That’s why he thinks he would navigate the world better because he did not have the culture and tradition values to guide him. When he was in school, he tried to tell explained and proved that his father used to a general back in Vietnam, despite his mother asked him to stop telling American those stories about their family. He was also only allowed to speak Vietnamese at home or reminded silence. At the end of the story, Andrew found a photo of himself in his father’s wallet, which was the only photo that his father brought with him to the United States. His father showed the dishonor when he chose to leave the war for his family. Lam finally realized that how his father cared about his family and he was acting childish through out those