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Children of the River is an excellent portrayal of immigration by the Cambodian refugees during the Vietnam War. Linda Crew provided an honest look at the Cambodian people, their hardships, their likes, their dislikes, their talents, and their faults. This honesty and openness is rare when speaking or writing about a race or culture, but it proves that honesty will still teach the most. Irony was one of the most affecting features in this book. The irony of Soka wanting Sundara to marry Chinese because of their lighter skin, but not wanting her to marry a white boy, was utterly ironic, and gave insight into the way Soka, and other Cambodians were thinking, with this contradictory goal of wanting to be as white as they could without being white. Soka also claimed that the Lams could smell money, but at the same time, she kept other families away from the work, and was smelling the money just as much as they do.
Irony's biggest function in this book was to show how silly and pointless the racism and bigotry the Cambodians had, and to show that they were no better than the other races in the nation. Linda Crew captured much of the feeling and culture of the Cambodian people through the use of river symbolism. The river was the icon of life, hope, and really any other emotion to the Cambodians. As Sundara said to Jonathan, the Americanism of The road of life is incorrect to her culture. A road can end, but a river keeps flowing. This would also reflect the Buddhist beliefs of reincarnation, compared to the Christian beliefs of a single life.
Every event in the book that had any significance had a reference to water or a river in it. When Sundara cried, she swam in tears that were drowning her. When Moni announced her divorce, she also said she would paddle her own boat now. In Cambodian culture, grandparents lived with their eldest child during retirement.
While living there, they were essentially regarded as the wise old sages of the family, not in control, but the person that could always give advice and wisdom learned through the ages. This was largely because culture didnt change much through the years, so advice about something Grandma did fifty years ago would still work now. In America, this system was turned upside down, because cultures changed drastically between generations. In the case in the book, Grandmother was completely out of place. She clung to a memory of the old Cambodia, and no one could convince her that her Cambodia was gone. Now, she cant even fill her role of wise sage of the family, because shes just as confused as everyone else in this new place, and shes handling it the worst of everyone.
The younger Cambodians were in a very difficult situation, because they were still young enough to learn a new culture, but their parents tried to hold them back. They were the ones that werent ingrained into a culture yet, but were out of place, because the culture their parents had wasnt all around them, but the culture around them was against the wishes of their family. Because of that, they had to make do with little or nothing. Sundara was like this, she didnt really have many Khmers her age to do things with, but Soka was against her being with Jonathan or probably any other white people. Children of the River opened many eyes into the situations that were faced by the Cambodians. It showed that they were real people, with real prejudices.
What it really told, though, was how difficult it is to make the transition to American life, and there are people struggling every day to do that. It showed how alone someone can be if they have to leave their homeland behind. But mostly, it showed that if we greet people in with arms wide open, we can prevent a lot of pain and make the transition much easier for people. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Children Of The River Make The Transition Culture
