Nonfiction Analysis: Andrew Lam And Salvation

Nonfiction Analysis
David Dupuis
ENG/125
5/22/2014
Denise Eatherly

This reaction paper features the nonfiction story titles Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone by Andrew Lam and Salvation by Langston Hughes. The authors’ timeline do not overlap yet the subject theme of having an adult teach the young the ways of their ancestors either through culture or religion is found a commonality in both essays. Another similarity prevalent in both stories is the misunderstanding of the representatives of each party either in insistent communication or failed communication. This portrays that a gap exists between these two generations regardless of the period one is in. However, the approach of the
While their mothers had an opportunity to grow up in Vietnam and live like a Vietnamese, the young generation were born or raised in America and had to live like Americans. The pressure that the young generations go through everyday is a struggle just like a Vietnamese mother struggling to keep the culture everyday. When a boy goes to school, he has to absorb the new system, a new set of friends, and a multi-cultural approach of dealing with people. The new environment is a pressure itself to the young generation to cope up to be able to belong and be identified within a group. This is the very reason why the young generation says that he has of no use of the old ways – the language, the culture, or the religion. As a young American, the protagonist finds no reason to talk to the departed or pray for them for protection. If one finds himself doing so, it may be to follow obediently to a tradition or to make the elderly be pleased with him as cited in the story. The value to achieve also pulls the young generation away to reserve a solemn time of rekindling with the past and pushes one to use the time wisely in doing
The protagonist is also a boy and he is being welcomed by his Aunt to Christianity. The pre-adolescence is a stage where curiosity is prevalent and answers are taken too literally. This caused a failed communication between the Aunt and the boy regarding Christianity. The young boy had interpreted that he will literally see Jesus starting with a blinding light and an actual Jesus inviting Him to be saved. In his own innocent bouts, he had anticipated the coming of the said “Jesus” who will come and save him. For this little boy, he knew the importance of this Savior as He had made the senior community sing, dance, and rejoices in His name. This vivid picture of Christianity had put high expectations to the boy and had disillusioned the young boy’s faith. When he didn’t see the coming of “Jesus” for the longest time, the questioning of the community on his status of being saved pressured him to make a decision. However, this decision is not the kind of choice that the Aunt was really implying to the boy. The decision was out of the pressure that the community had put into him when he was on the spotlight. Another pressure that he had seen is when one of his friends who pretended to be saved by Jesus looked down on him, grimacing. On this part, the boy asked himself why a liar is not struck by lightning. We can also assess that the boy also