A Different View

Chapter 7

Term: theme

The theme of this chapter is learning to see things differently. In this chapter, Le Ly learns to have a new perspective on all things that would appear to be negative. When I thought about this chapter, I thought of optical illusions, which require an open mind in order to see the picture in its entirety. The picture above is an optical illusion that can be seen as two different pictures. In this chapter, Le Ly goes back to visit her father in Ky La. When she arrives at his house, he is badly beaten and in poor condition. He explains to her that the Americans came by and saw that he had a large bunker (this is where their family would hide for periods of time during the war). The Americans had assumed that since the bunker was so big, Le Ly's father was hiding Viet Cong members inside of the bunker. Her father said it was bad luck that he was beaten. He said the war was all about bad luck and bad karma. Once her father was well, he would come by to visit Le Ly and Hung, her son. Later on, however, Le Ly's father had tried to poison himself because he was lonely without family. He had died and this brought much grief to Le Ly's family. As the family went through the funereal ceremonies Le Ly had thought this about her family's actions after her father's death, "No matter how we mourned, though, we made it clear in our hearts (and to others when we helped them) that each charitable act we did was in the name of Phung Trong, so that his passage from hell to heaven would be hastened." This chapter's theme truly is viewing tragedy with a new perspective. Even though Phung Trong's death left Le Ly's family in grief, they were able to be happier that through their actions, Phung would reach happiness. Every now and then, everyone needs to look at situations in life from a different view.