The Nguyen Family

Family; how can you define the word Family? What creates a family and who constitutes it? 'Family' is an exclusive word, with many different meanings. People’s experiences define what family is to them and what being a part of a family means to them. It differs in terms of economic, ethnic, social, and many other aspects, but what every family has in common is that people who call it a family are clarifying that families are important in some manner or aspect to the person calling them his family. In Kim Thúy’s book “Ru”, the Nguyen Family reflects the importance of the child’s life since they are the biggest influential people. Thúy focused the conflict of a refugee circumstance to a young protagonist girl name Tinh Nguyen and how her rigorous
experience inclined her future due to her family’s love and support. In the book “Ru”, author Kim Thúy explicitly explain that family waters the seeds of the individual’s will to blossom to the individual they’re meant to be.

The quote “family is linked to our past, bridge to our future,” by Alex Haley reflects how Nguyen’s adolescent behaviour was influenced by the refugee circumstances she endured with her family.
Children like Tinh, who are exposed to a war-related environment at a young age, experienced a spectrum of psychological morbidities such as being overly self-effaced. As Tinh’s mother saw a red flag, she often puts Tinh in difficult situations in order for her to overcome her fear. “Everytime she tried to take me out of the shadows, out of my shadow, I drowned myself in tears to the point of exhaustion,” (Thúy 53). Tinh’s shadow is a symbol of physical personification of diverting judgemental attention away from herself during her pre-adolescent phase. The feeling of obscurity became her comfort zone as a consequence of her traumatic experience. But as time went by, these challenges strengthened her as her mother always pushes her to the edge in order for her to forcibly strengthen her mentality. The Nguyen family also suffered an issue of wealth since they have no one to depend on but themselves. Wealth can divide and segregate the society based on levels of income and create a platform of aristocracy. Refugees can be isolated from current-day society from being unable to afford the cost of living which ultimately leads to a lack of privileges and unjust behaviour to the
refugees. However, the Nguyen family was able to provide something that was worth more than the value of the money to Tinh. "My parents often remind my brothers and me that they won't have any money for us to inherit, but I think they've already passed on to the wealth of their memories, allowing us to grasp the beauty of a flowering wisteria, the delicacy of the word, the power of wonder," (60). Tinh emphasizes the importance of curiosity and creativity as it dictates your future. Having limited access to wealth can cause the brain to show more curiosity towards the universe as our creative imagination is the threshold to the infinite of our being and the doorway to the exploration of our never ending abundance non-conscious intellect. Tinh’s family gifted her the power to wonder as it consequently helped her to have a never ending journey of exploration and the potential to experience whatever she can conceive which ultimately helped her become lawyer in the hereafter. Lastly, her learning experience from being a refugee allowed her to be more appreciative of sharing with people. “I wanted to be very different from my mother, until the day I decided to have my two sons share a bedroom, even though there were empty rooms in the house.” (50). Tinh had a flashback at the time where she was forced to share rooms with her brother as well as her cousins. She understood that sharing is a critical life skill where toddlers and youngsters need to learn to be non-greedy, build trust and act cooperatively. The result of this made her autistic son learn to trust his brother and became aware of his presence.