Judging Chop Suey

Judging by classroom discussions, Chop Suey central idea is to show how racism still exists and how it affects people. Like we discussed in class, an author usually tells their personal narrative to get their point across using a variety of methods. For example, a writer’s point of view and their subject matter can really depict a deep story. In the mind boggling memoir by Ira Sukrungruang, Ira portrays a fond memory of him and his mother that leads to a nasty turn of events. Young Ira depicts a memory where he learns that is mother is not only a great mother but also an excellent bowler. Their fun times turn dark when a mysterious man tries to talk to Ira’s mother. After blank stares are exchanged and fear crept into Ira’s mother’s mind, the stranger thanked her. The
Finally, the man makes his point and thanked her “people” for making a good chop suey. Clearly the mans intentions were to degrade the Sukrungrauangs and to get a good laugh amongst his friends. Ira’s mother handled the situation well by biting her tongue and simply thanking the rude stranger. Like mentioned before, the author’s point of view gives the story life which shows the pain that the Sukrungruangs endured by being racially degraded. The first person point of view of this narrative is so necessary because it conveys what it is like on the receiving end of racial slurs. Mr. Sikrungruang’s racially themed subject matter is so important to this personal narrative because it is real and it is a topic not many people would pursue. I was not expecting such a drastic turn of events because the memory started off so fondly. My expectations for the story was that it was going to be a simple story about how Ira became a great or professional bowler like his mother. Honestly, the memoir was very eye opening to me and I applaud the writer for being brave enough to share such a traumatic event in his life. I truly commend him because it was quite hard to read his story yet he lived