ASIA AM 50 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Culture Of Asia
24 May 2018
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Summary
- "War Years" is a short story about the unnamed 13-year-old son of Vietnamese
immigrants who run a grocery story in San Jose, California. It is set in the summer of
1983 and is narrated in first-person, by the boy, who is remembering the events of the
summer years later.
- Historical Background: Vietnam war started in 1955 ended in 1975.
- In "War Years," the story opens with the narrator claiming that nothing his mother did
surprised him before Mrs. Hoa came into their lives. The story begins in the summer of
1983, when the narrator was taking summer school classes in English. The classes were a
break, a vacation of sorts, from the Vietnamese spoke in his home and in his parents'
grocery story, New Saigon. The narrator tells the reader about the food stocked at the
store, the types of specialties that would remind the Vietnamese community in San Jose
of home.
- hinges on divisions between refugees. In this case, between the narrator's parents,
successful store owners, and Mrs. Hoa, a refugee who asks them for money to help fight
the Communists back in Vietnam. The narrator's parents refuse, leading to a climactic
confrontation.
- Through significant events and details in his narration we see a lot of themes that draws
parallel with refugees. There were two significant events that particularly shapes the
direction of the story
- The robbing of the House
- The outburst against Mrs.Hoa
- Other details that delineates the Asian culture
- Studying philosophy as opposed to medicine or law is something that is frowned
upon
- No extra expense to buy goods other than the necessities
- They send money back home to relatives and family who are in need of financial
help
Analaysis
The adaption
- In the beginning of the story, the mother refrains from donating money to Mrs.Hoa. She
calls the act of donating “a loss cause to something that has already ended”. Her refusal
to donate is largely due to the financial pressure they have upon the family. In between
paying tuition for the son and daughter and paying different house bills, they really don't
have much to spend on other things. Hence the adaption, they try their best to fit in the
country by conforming to the status quo. Trying to blend in as regular Americans. Refuse
to think of the past that is Vietnam. Significance of this stage of the story: why blend
The confrontation
- In the duration of the story, the family encounter Mrs.Hoa several times and during every
encounter, Mrs.Hoa is trying to persuade the family that donating is the right thing to do.
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