Pre-assessment Critical Reading Questions the Gangster We Are All Looking for

The Gangster Nosotros Are All Looking For

Cover of the First edition
Author	lê thi diem thúy
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Knopf
Publication engagement	2003
Media type	Impress (hardback & paperback)
Pages	162
ISBN	0-375-70002-1

The Gangster We Are All Looking For is the kickoff novel by Vietnamese-American writer lê thi diem thúy, published in 2003. It was first published equally a short piece in The Best American Essays of 1997 and was likewise awarded a Pushcart Prize "Special Mention."^[1]

The novel is a fragmented sequence of events recollected by a nameless narrator. In a first-person narrative, the narrator tells the stories of her past experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant. The time and identify continuously shift throughout the novel; the story takes place both in Vietnam and America. The novel is concerned with themes of identity, family dynamics, state of war, and liberation. Images of water are prominent symbolically and literally throughout the novel.^{[two] [3]}

Narrative style [edit]

The novel is told through the voice of the immigrant girl when she is half dozen, and continues building until she was 26.

The menses of the prose is anachronistic, often jumping from life in America to life in Vietnam, at times fifty-fifty to a time in Vietnam earlier the narrator's nascence. The tenses also switch from nowadays tense to by and back. The novel is as well told episodically fractured, because as the author stated, "memory, by its nature, is very fragmented".^[iv] She wanted "ruptures", "disturbances", and "pauses", since she believed that people's retentiveness, especially the traumatic memory are naturally fragmented.^[4]

Too, Le is good at using descriptive sentences and providing vivid details to draw images and scenes for readers. When the niggling girl thinks back most the swimming puddle, Le emphasizes a lot of small things with a series of "I remember..." to make the paragraph rhythmic and thought-provoking (Le 54).^[v] Details like the bouncing ball and the fluttering sheets are dramatic flashbacks, which encourage readers to imagine the surroundings, in which the tragedy happens.

Themes & Symbols [edit]

H2o [edit]

Throughout the novel, h2o is the nigh prominent motif. From the first, lê thi diem thúy inserts that "In Vietnamese, the word for water and the word for a nation, a country, and a homeland are one and the same: nu'ó'c."The reason why water is so important for Vietnamese is that Vietnam is a country that is surrounded past h2o. They alive beside the water for generations. Si it is tin can be said that water is a holy thing for Vietnamese. In a similar sense, water plays a symbolic role in diverse ways in the text—-often, with dual/contrary meanings. Nigh of the themes inside the text are somehow related to and entwined with the menstruation of water. Except for water, the palm is likewise an important symbol in the volume to symbolize the hometown. The palm is mentioned for many times in the book because both Vietnam and California is tropical area

In fact, she ever consciously and unconsciously seeks out the dead brothers to heal the trauma acquired by the loss of her sibling. The representations of water are prominent symbolically and literally throughout the novel which also reflect narrator's action afterwards her brother'due south death. Water connected Vietnam and her brother's expiry.

Repression [edit]

The narrator was constantly haunted by her brother' southward image "As she directed the middle of the photographic camera back to the grass, she kept crying because of what it

could not run across and what she could not stop seeing."(The Gangster 19) The repression memory on the conscious get a consistency imagination in narrator's mind. People volition intend non to see the cruel fact, but it nonetheless be. If the death is hide from others, they search is never stop. "The denial and repression merely increase the narrator's determination to obtain the affirmation of the brother'southward decease. " Prior to that, she imagines that her brother is alive and is around her.

The Mobility of Memory through the Photograph^[6] [edit]

Through the photograph, The Gangster We Are All Looking For explores the nature of memory and its ability, or inability, to travel from generation to generation. In le'south narrative, the photograph can be understood non only in terms of reference and time, but also "perspective of mobility".

The Mobility of Behaviors through walking and wandering^[vii] [edit]

The image of h2o not only symbolizes their nation, Vietnam and open up sea, simply also shows their flexibility of their behaviors and actions, to assimilate the social activities. Chen illustrates their actions to"employ physical mobility to discover their host guild and to validate their existence through their bipedal adventures as active diasporic subjects" (xiii). Their actions to be involved in new community are every bit fluid as water. Her male parent helps her hold an advisable attitude after moving in a new state, rather than finding ways to render. More than that, their mobility on their identifications as Vietnamese Americans makes them walk and wander and find their means to fit into the society. This quality of their identifications as well causes the daughter to motility around and live abroad from her parents.

"Arrival one: Listening to the Mortified Eloquence of the Photograph" [edit]

From the beginning, the photo is non presented equally an object to be viewed, but as a strength which disturbs the narrator's somewhat settled family. Although the photograph is non accompanied with text or a written bulletin, to the female parent, the picture is a demand, a bulletin which tells of a time when the mother had been disowned. Because the photograph is loaded with deep emotion and grief for the mother, "she loses herself, literally her self, to information technology entirely" (8). Only for the girl, who does not associate much experience with the photo, the picture does non offer any sort of admission.

"Inflow 2: (At)Tending to the Split Photograph" [edit]

Treating the photograph equally if it was an actual immigrant, Ma tells the narrator that the photo has come to motility in. The narrator's response is: "I don't really know what she is talking about only I say 'O.1000.' anyhow," suggesting the alienation and challenge of intergenerational remembering. Because the photograph is addressed towards the female parent, the mother recognizes herself as the child, the grandparents as the parents. Since the female parent is taking on the office of the kid, she dislodges the identity of the narrator. Considering the female parent perceives the photo as addressed towards herself, the photograph offers no connection to the narrator. Actually, it dislocates the narrator from her identity.

"The mother becomes a 'child,' the male parent a 'gangster,' and the daughter confronts the multiple voids of a vacated identity" (10). Considering the girl is incapable of interpreting or connecting to the photograph, since it was taken before she was born, her merely option is to engage in a shut examination which results in empty meaning. Lorensen states that the "daughter's … relation to the family portrait from Vietnam [is] the mad dance before the entire neighborhood." "The daughter's mad trip the light fantastic could exist viewed as a theatrical examination of a photograph that refuses to have significant for her" (11). Lorensen claims that although the daughter can not see the photograph the way her mother does, she all the same recognizes its power to disintegrate her family, the mode her own torso "dissolves" (12) as she dances in front of the unabridged neighborhood.

"Arrival three: The 2nd Death of the Photographic Bailiwick as the Catalytic Marking of Signification" [edit]

Lorensen also suggests that the since the photograph has come to represent the grandparents, when the family is evicted from their Linda Vista dwelling, leaving behind the photograph, two types of "evictions" accept identify, the eviction from Linda Vista in America, and some other one from the past, when the mother is evicted, or disowned, from her family in Vietnam. Although this may seem like an improvident estimation, the details of the narration propose otherwise. There are two descriptions which link both evictions together. The description of the concatenation-link fence and the calling of each other'south names, which are nowadays in both "evictions". At the end, the female parent calls out for her parents, which she'southward forgotten. This has a double meaning. She's calling for her domicile in Vietnam, to return to Vietnam, as well as the photographs she'south forgotten at her Linda Vista dwelling.

The Textual Representation of a Visual Representation (Ekphrasticism) [edit]

Through le'due south language, to the narrator and to the American reader, the photograph'south meaning slides from being the grandparents to beingness "Vietnam." This is due to le'south language in introducing the photograph as "Vietnam is a blackness-and-white photograph of […]" (78) which invokes other images of blackness-and-white photographs regarding Vietnam that the collective American memory may recall such as the photo of a daughter running from a napalm strike or the close range shooting of a Viet Cong suspect.^[eight]

Loss of Blood brother

The narrator loses her blood brother during her family immigrated from Vietnam to the U.S. In this book, sibling bereavement affects the narrator's mental condition during her childhood. Firstly, "social withdrawal and express friendships have been found as distal correlates to sibling death in several studies" (Garlie),^[9] which tin be reflected in her function every bit an observer bu non a participator at school and has limited friends (Le xix).^[ten] In addition, she oft feels differently than others or even has delusion when seeing the butterfly in the drinking glass deejay and her feelings are so fragile that she is e'er trying to free the butterfly in the glass deejay(Le 25).^[10] What's more, she is dying for existence intimate with "the male child", which is narrated in fragments for many times. Actually, she is e'er looking for her dead brother, both consciously and unconsciously, the reason is considering her PTSD—post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is an "overwhelming experience of sudden or catastrophic events in which the response to the result occurs in the often uncontrolled, repetitive advent of hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena" (iii).^[eleven] The narrator's unconscious mind constantly reminds her of her brother, who she often fantasizes about as if he were nevertheless alive and acts with foreign performances as if he were correct there with her. This shows that the decease of her elder brother had a very negative influence on the narrator, and it even affects her mental land gradually.

The loss of brother leads to unconscious development of defense mechanism in narrator'southward mind, thus prompting her to accept actions to escape difficulties in subsequently immigrant life. The narrator's unconscious defense mechanism is embodied in her selective retentivity of her dead brother. "Selective memory ways modifying our memories then that nosotros don 't feel overwhelmed by them or forgetting painful events entirely" (Tyson).^[12] So when the narrator thinks of her brother, she often thinks about the cute memories of getting along with him.As narrator illustratesinthe book: "I could lean back, I could close my optics and fall down a flight of stairs or off the second-flooring railing, and he would exist there to catch me; I was sure of it" (Le 74).^[13] When she feels solitary in America, she thinks of playing games with her brother. She feels that this happy retention will enable her to solve the difficulties of loneliness. The narrator's brother protects her like a guardian affections, so she trusts him and feels warmth from him. Selectively remembering her brother is her unconscious defense force mechanism to deal with her grief. She refuses to retrieve how her blood brother died and what resulted in his death because she is trying to make herself forget the painful retention.

The Connectedness of Father-and-daughter [edit]

The nameless girl ever knows clearly she wants to be a person like her father. She aims to be "the gangster [they] are all looking for" (Le 93) and she is certain she sees her future in him (116). Her father affects her; non only is she akin to him by their biographical relations but also because of his enlightening and his accompanying. And when Le talked nearly the gangster formally for the first time, information technology is her father. Her father used to exist a member of gangster and a Buddhist. Le'southward mother didn't know that at first and dated with him secretly. She gradually found the truth after she was married. B ut later on the entire family unit moved into America, no one else knew well-nigh that fact. Though her male parent e'er acts like the gangster, violently and losing control, she wants to be this kind of person equally a hero in front of her.

Information technology is her male parent who adapts the new surround actively with her. Information technology is her father who keeps company with her and builds shadow for her. Every bit a six-twelvemonth-old girl, all her knowledge is derived from her father. When she has no one to rely on except her father, the unconscious belief of becoming the kind of person who gives others safe and enlightenment implies what her father has given to her and protected her.

On the nighttime they left Vietnam,"information technology was her father who carried [her] down to the beach and placed [her] on the angling boat. During the hours that must have been ones of fear, anxiety, and desperation, [her] but memory is of how calmly [she] saturday waiting for him"(105). It is her father who protects her from homelessness. He is the terminal harbinger she could hold on to. Also, the tie of father-and-girl is crucial because begetter can affect the stability of children;due south relations with others and the sense of security, as well equally some"social skills, behavior bug, motivation"and"cognitive performances"(Cabrera 122).^[fourteen] Her male parent consolidates her cognition, builds her whole earth and gives her sense of security.

Geopolitics [edit]

Geopolitics "refers to the involvement of geography and politics in an international framework", this term "has been used by scholars to gesture toward the entanglement of nationality and transnationality in diverse localities" (Liu).^[15] Frequently switching the places where things happened discontinuously to tell stories, as refugees or outsiders, helps to provide a fragmented and displaced context. Le makes use of the alternating scenes between Vietnam and the Usa, and the alternated times between by and present in The Gangster Nosotros Are All Looking For, to piece the narrator's retentiveness which maps the fragmentation. The storyteller, a half dozen-year-one-time girl, describes how "a Catholic schoolgirl from the Due south" and "a Buddhist gangster from the North" meet and fall in love, and where they give nativity to her in Vietnam in the 3rd affiliate of this book (Le 79).^[5] She relates the metaphor as told by her female parent to reflect that the war pains this family a lot, and it is like a bird that they tin't go rid of, flies with this family unit all the fourth dimension and never stops hurting from Vietnam to the United States (Le 87).^[5] Subsequently in this chapter, she makes a turn that focuses on the life they have in the xanthous business firm in California while her family has to move out once again similar they had to leave Vietnam as refugees (Le 88).^[5]

Palm [edit]

Palm most commonly refers to:

• Palm of the hand, the central region of the forepart of the hand
• Palm trees, of family Arecaceae

Equally one of the softest function of human body, the narrator uses it to seek and observe things. Through touching and feeling things by her palm, what she feels are more factual and sensitive. When she is going to bring the ice bag to her mom, the melting water ice bag reminds her of her died blood brother. Since "the fingertips [are] wrinkled with common cold, every bit if [she]'d been swimming for hours" (Le 77),^[v] her palm is stimulated because of the physical response. This depiction that symbolizes the frozen memory of her brother also begins to emerge.

What is more than, "palm" is likewise a kind of tree that pervades in the whole story. It seems that this tree records everything happened on this immigrant family unit as a documentary.

The being of palm in the United States is as symbolic every bit the meaning of water to Vietnam. Palm is very common in the United States, just like seeing h2o in the author's consciousness tin think of hometown Vietnam. "When they cut away the plastic, what we saw was a squat babe palm tree"(Le 53).^[5] In this section, the landlord took the water out of the pool and planted a palm to represent the replacement. The h2o, the swimming pool, the just ane connectedness with the narrator'southward hometown she believed has disappeared, and replaced by a infant palm. This shows that she was also forced to integrate into the new environment.

Conspiracy Silence [edit]

There is a "communicative disruption" (Ha 4)^[sixteen] between her and her father, "water moving through a reed piping in the middle of a sad tune. And the voice is always asking and answering itself" (Le 10).^[5] Her male parent never shares his past or what he has experienced with his family members. He always chooses to be silent or cry alone. In this case, "Ba" is trapped in his unsolved traumatic memories, which obstructs him continue going. Co-ordinate to Ha's analysis, Ba "fears being overwhelmed past his by, but his inability to transcend that past holds it as an e'er-nowadays obsession" (Ha five),^[xvi] which reveals "Ba" still in the conflicts between by hurting and present suffering. His emotion shows his lost in self-identity. It is obvious that "Ba" doesn't know how to get over the original trauma to accommodate to a new cultural life.

Reception [edit]

Le's novel received wide acclaim through a multitude of book reviews ranging from Entertainment Weekly to The New York Times to Publishers Weekly. There have been some minor reserves, though, about the footstep of the book and the difficulty of reading a fragmented narrative.

Entertainment Weekly: "Lovely and sparse, Gangster is like an impressionist painting-pretty strokes of prose melding to create a larger whole."^[17]

Library Journal: "The story opens slowly just gathers strength, and though it remains somewhat muted, le's lyrical writing and skill with the telling vignette will reward patient readers."^[18]

The New York Times: "Readers will non e'er detect 'The Gangster Nosotros Are All Looking For' easy to follow or the narrator'southward viewpoint consistent, just the cumulative, nearly liturgical effects of the novel is both heartbreaking and exhilarating."^[two]

Publishers Weekly: "This is a stark and significant piece of work that will challenge readers."^[19]

References [edit]

1. ^ Huand, Guiyou. Asian American Poets: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. 201-203. Book.
2. ^ ^{a b} Baumann, Paul. "Washing Time Away." The New York Times. 25 May 2003. Impress.
3. ^ Nguyen, Chau. "In Search of the Gangster." UCLA Constitute: Asia Pacific Arts. 9 April 2004. Spider web. <http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=9955>
4. ^ ^{a b} thúy, lê thi diem. "Fragments of Memory." Far E Economic Review. 11 March 2004. Vol. 167, Iss. ten, pg. 52. Print.
5. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f thousand} Lê, Thi Diem Thúy, 1972- (2003). The gangster we are all looking for (1st ed.). New York. ISBN0375400184. OCLC 50510869. {{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. ^ Gsoels-Lorensen, Gutta. "lê thi diem thúy's 'The Gangster Nosotros Are All Looking For': The Ekphrastic Emigration of a Photo." Studies in Gimmicky Fiction. Volume 48, Number four / Summer 2007. Print.
7. ^ "War, gender, and race in le thi diem thuy'southward The Gangster We Are All Looking For", The Vietnam War : Topics in Contemporary Due north American Literature, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, doi:ten.5040/9781472594006.ch-004, ISBN9781472594006
8. ^ Gsoels-Lorensen, Gutta. "lê thi diem thúy's 'The Gangster We Are All Looking For': The Ekphrastic Emigration of a Photograph"Studies in Contemporary Fiction. Volume 48, Number four / Summertime 2007. Impress
9. ^ Garlie, Robyn. "Marshall, B., & Winokuer, H. (Eds.). (2018). Sibling Loss Across the Lifespan: Research, Practice, and Personal Stories". Omega. 77: 412–415.
10. ^ ^{a b} Le, Thi Diem Thuy (2004). The Gangster We Are All Looking For. Ballast.
11. ^ Chen, Yu Min Claire. "Crossing Beyond the Pacific Ocean: Death and Trauma in le the diem thuy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For(2003) and Fae Myenne Ng's Bone(1993)".
12. ^ Tyson, Lois (2015). Critical Theory Today. ROUTLEDGE. p. 15. ISBN978-0-415-50674-viii.
13. ^ Le, Thi Diem Thuy (2003). The Gangster We Are All Looking For. Ballast. p. 74.
14. ^ Cabrera, Natasha J.; Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S., eds. (2012-12-06). Handbook of Father Involvement. doi:x.4324/9781410603500. ISBN9781410603500.
15. ^ Liu, Yu-yen (2015). "Articulating the Exodus: Place and Memory in Vietnamese-American Women Writers' Novels". Canadian Review of Comparative Literature. 42 (1): 69–80. doi:10.1353/crc.2015.0000. ISSN 1913-9659. S2CID 144719281.
16. ^ ^{a b} Ha, Quan Manh (2015-01-fifteen). "Conspiracy of Silence and New Subjectivity in Monkey Bridge and The Gangster We Are All Looking For". Journal of Southeast Asian American Pedagogy and Advancement. eight (1). doi:10.7771/2153-8999.1058. ISSN 2153-8999.
17. ^ Lee, Allyssa. "The Gangster We Are All Looking For." Entertainment Weekly. nine May 2003. Issue 709, pg. 83. Print.
18. ^ Seaman, Donna. "The Gangster We Are All Looking For." Library Periodical. i March 2003. Vol. 128, Upshot iv; pg. 119. Print.
19. ^ Zaleski, Jeff. "The Gangster We Are All Looking For." Publishers Weekly. 21 April 2003. Vol. 250, Iss. 16; pg. 39. Print.

External links [edit]

• The Gangster We Are All Looking For at Random Business firm

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gangster_We_Are_All_Looking_For