“The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down” is a story about a girl named Lia Lee who was diagnosed with epilepsy at a young age. There are multiple struggles in this book with cultural divide between the Hmong and the American medical systems. Lia and her parents, Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee, were refugees that had immigrated to the United States. Foua and Nao were very religious, and lived by the Hmong culture. Shortly after moving to California they had learned that Lia had epilepsy, and other upper respiratory infections. The Hmong believed that epileptic people could see things that others cannot. They knew that it was a bad disease, but they also saw a potential in this disease. It got to the point of being so bad that they had made so many
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Some of the similarities would be how I stand up for what I believe in just like she did when it comes to her religious practices. I would be persistent, and do whatever I thought was necessary for my child. Similarly, I would have been frustrated at the fact that these doctors did not take their time to know how I truly felt. Sometimes I think that all these medicines in the world cause people to become sicker. I wonder if there is even a true purpose behind some of them. There are people in other cultures that live by different morals, and they can heal their people. There were also differences between Foua and I. Being born in the United Stated means that I can go to a public school and get an education. At that I can get an education in whatever field of study that I please. I am privileged to live in a country where my language is the primary speaking language, and it is a safer place to live. I live with people who have the same out looks on life as I do. They know how to react to certain things, or they know how to get me the resources I need in life. I live with people who practice religion the same way that I do. I would not know how to feel if I went to some other country, and had people practicing religion a certain way that I couldn’t contribute
Some of the similarities would be how I stand up for what I believe in just like she did when it comes to her religious practices. I would be persistent, and do whatever I thought was necessary for my child. Similarly, I would have been frustrated at the fact that these doctors did not take their time to know how I truly felt. Sometimes I think that all these medicines in the world cause people to become sicker. I wonder if there is even a true purpose behind some of them. There are people in other cultures that live by different morals, and they can heal their people. There were also differences between Foua and I. Being born in the United Stated means that I can go to a public school and get an education. At that I can get an education in whatever field of study that I please. I am privileged to live in a country where my language is the primary speaking language, and it is a safer place to live. I live with people who have the same out looks on life as I do. They know how to react to certain things, or they know how to get me the resources I need in life. I live with people who practice religion the same way that I do. I would not know how to feel if I went to some other country, and had people practicing religion a certain way that I couldn’t contribute