Analysis of “Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone?” the Creative No-Fiction Essay The non-fiction essay “Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone?” is an essay based on identity. Andrew Lam is faced with identity, when seeing how being in America has changed him compared to his mother. He is faced with this because no matter how old his mother got, nor is she moved from one continent to another she will always live by the Vietnamese traditions and rituals. When Lam on the other had has moved to America and stopped doing rituals and following his Vietnamese traditions. Some things that were surprising, was when Lam over hears his mother asking his aunt “who will light incense to the dead when I’m gone?” Him hearing that makes him think
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To where as long as he could remember his mother always “mumbles solemn prayers to the spirits… and to the all-compassionate Buddha” he explained. He goes on to wonder what she was praying for, to answer it by saying “protection for her children and grandchildren, and that they should prosper in America.” He described the feeling of knowing if he was still in Vietnam he would be doing the rituals he use to do, as “feeling a certain twingle of guilt and regret” because he use to follow the same rituals as his mother before he moved to America. A good example of Lam showing how America has changed him, when he said “…once mother asked me to speak more Vietnamese inside the house. ‘No,’ I answered in English, curtly. “What good is it to speak it mom? It’s not as if I’m going to use it after I move out.” Lam knew that his mother feeling were hurt because he says “she had this pained look in her eyes.” His mother was happy that he came to America an accomplished things, but believed something, in her words “changed his inner makeup and dulled his Confusion ways.” And she wasn’t happy about that change. Lam shows even more guilt and regret by saying “…these days, in front of the family altar with all those faded photos of the dead staring down at me, I often …show more content…
Lam’s education and career are related to identity because it’s like he came to America got some freedom and made a voice for himself by traveling, writing, and public speaking, he wouldn’t have been able to truly see how smart and successful he could be if he didn’t find himself. Which may not have been possible for him in Vietnam. In America, Americans do often define others by their careers. If you’re in your late twenty’s or in your thirty’s working at McDonald’s people judge you by thinking you didn’t finish school or you just threw your life away. When compared to someone around the same age who works in an office would be judged in a more positive way. Race and ethnicity also contribute to identity in America. According to The Critical Media Project website, In the United states and other Western Contexts, whites have historically been associated with superiority and privilege; people of color have historically been associated with inferiority and labeled as the “Other” in society. When your race should not have anything to do with who you are as a person. According to Safari the
To where as long as he could remember his mother always “mumbles solemn prayers to the spirits… and to the all-compassionate Buddha” he explained. He goes on to wonder what she was praying for, to answer it by saying “protection for her children and grandchildren, and that they should prosper in America.” He described the feeling of knowing if he was still in Vietnam he would be doing the rituals he use to do, as “feeling a certain twingle of guilt and regret” because he use to follow the same rituals as his mother before he moved to America. A good example of Lam showing how America has changed him, when he said “…once mother asked me to speak more Vietnamese inside the house. ‘No,’ I answered in English, curtly. “What good is it to speak it mom? It’s not as if I’m going to use it after I move out.” Lam knew that his mother feeling were hurt because he says “she had this pained look in her eyes.” His mother was happy that he came to America an accomplished things, but believed something, in her words “changed his inner makeup and dulled his Confusion ways.” And she wasn’t happy about that change. Lam shows even more guilt and regret by saying “…these days, in front of the family altar with all those faded photos of the dead staring down at me, I often …show more content…
Lam’s education and career are related to identity because it’s like he came to America got some freedom and made a voice for himself by traveling, writing, and public speaking, he wouldn’t have been able to truly see how smart and successful he could be if he didn’t find himself. Which may not have been possible for him in Vietnam. In America, Americans do often define others by their careers. If you’re in your late twenty’s or in your thirty’s working at McDonald’s people judge you by thinking you didn’t finish school or you just threw your life away. When compared to someone around the same age who works in an office would be judged in a more positive way. Race and ethnicity also contribute to identity in America. According to The Critical Media Project website, In the United states and other Western Contexts, whites have historically been associated with superiority and privilege; people of color have historically been associated with inferiority and labeled as the “Other” in society. When your race should not have anything to do with who you are as a person. According to Safari the