Cultural stew
...e fact that John is not the main provider for the family, and that her daughter Natalie is. John, in the grandmother’s eyes, is lazy and not willing to provide for his family. It is hard for her to realize that in America the man is not always the sole provider, and in a lot of cases the woman is. When being younger in an Asian family it is hard to get your voice heard and acknowledged. Nea from “Saving Soudi” seems to be at the outside looking in at times, such as decisions being made that effect her own life without her say in any of it. Nea’s mother hides adult topics from her such as Sourdi being given away for marriage. Nea often gets mad at her mother and in a large way hates her for not including in such topics that surround her life. “When she came out again after talking to Sourdi, she ignored me completely. She set the phone back on the counter without saying a word”(128). Because of how Sourdi and her mother shut her out Nea felt angry and aggravated because she so badly wanted to be involved in her sister’s life. Part of growing up is realizing there are going to be changes that will affect the rest of your life. In the story it is hard for Nea to realize she is growing up and that there will be changes. Nea did not want her sister Sourdi to get married because when they were younger they often talked about leaving their home and traveling the world together when they got older. It seemed as if Nea wanted Sourdi all to herself and would do anything to keep others away from their relationship. Sourdi had to move on with her life and mature at a rapid pace when being forced into a marriage. Nea thought she had to save her sister, but in truth Sourdi was growing up and growing further apart from Nea The major character flaw of Nea was that she cared too much and would do anything for Sourdi. Nea went through so much worry and pain that she forgets to live her own life. Nea went to extremes when handling certain situations in her sister’s life. One part of the story Nea stabs a customer at the restaurant for grabbing her sister and making rude comments towards her. “Get away from my sister! I shouted waving the paring knife. The men were silent for about three seconds, then they burst into laughter. I charged and stabbed the man in the sleeve”(122). Nea cared so much for what was happening to her sister that she didn’t even think twice about the consequences for stabbing the customer. Grandma’s major character trait is that of keeping her cultural values and make it known that she thinks those values should be the norm. John and Natalie told grandma numerous of times that they did not like her hitting Sophie, but grandma repeated on doing so because she felt she was right. This later cost grandma to visit with her granddaughter. Another problem that Natalie and John face is that grandma thinks she is wiser because she is older and treats their thoughts about how she treats Sophie as wrong, just because they are younger. Grandma is not a bad person for being so culturally strong, but she needs to take John and Natalie’s opinion into consideration and not treat them as inferior to her. Nea’s wanted to be included so badly in her sister’s life but was shut- out of it. Certain topics are withheld from younger people to shelter them from the truth because the older people do not know how they will react to it. This is how Sourdi and their mother must have felt because they realized how passionate Nea felt about Sourdi. Their was no way for them to predict how Nea would react if she heard of the fight that Sourdi and her husband had, she already stabbed somebody who did something against her they did not know how she would react. Until Nea matured it was if Sourdi and her mother were going to hide certain topics from her. These two characters from these two different stories had one major comparison, people they cared and loved were ripped right out of their lives. Nea had to watch Sourdi leave her life because of a forced marriage; Grandma had her privilege of ba...