Character Analysis Of Saving Sourdi By May-Lee Chai

Nea, who is a main character and narrator, is Sourdi’s younger sister in May-Lee Chai’s “Saving Sourdi.” She offers insight to the story as a child, young refugee in America, and as a hopeful and extremely protective sister. My goal is to explore the importance of Nea’s perspective to “Saving Sourdi,” as well as how the viewpoints of other characters would change the story. As the one who’s “always saving Sourdi,” like the title suggests, it seems natural that Nea is the narrator. While Nea’s point of view offer insight into the mind of a child immigrant of war, the story may not make sense if you don’t have her perspective and motives to draw from. She’s able to tell us what her mother and Sourdi told her about Cambodia, which is also able to explain why she’s so protective of her sister, saying, “Sourdi had walked across a minefield, carrying me on her back. . . . Because she’d told me, I could see it all clearly, better than if I actually remembered: the startled faces of people who’d tripped a mine, their limbs in new arrangements, the bones peeking through the earth” (140). Nea, though she’s been told the stories of Cambodia, actually remembers …show more content…
But, if she told the story, we wouldn’t know Nea and Duke drove interstate to save Sourdi or know about the relationship between Nea and Sourdi, both of which are key elements to the story from any perspective. Their mother would most likely be focused on giving her kids a good, safe, financially stable American life (something they couldn’t have in Cambodia). This goal also ties into her anger when Nea stabs Sourdi’s “attacker,” when she told Nea, “You not thinking. That your problem. You always not think!” since her actions disturbed the peace and would make life harder for the entire family (131). We can also assume that their mother is setting Sourdi up with already-successful bachelors, like Mr. Chhay, to give her a safe middle-class life (Chai