Heaven and Earth Chapter 14

In August 1969, Le Ly agreed to marry Ed Munro and move to the United States with him.  However, she realized it would be an extremely expensive process when she spoke again to her landlady Hoa.  She moved in with Ed and soon became pregnant again.  When her second son (Tommy) was born, Ed was very excited, even though he already had two grown sons back in America.  His overseas contract expired a few months later, and he planned to go back to San Diego while Le Ly would wait then go a few weeks later.  On May 27, 1970, Le Ly, Jimmy, and Tommy boarded a big American jetliner which would take them to Honolulu.

The fourteenth chapter also included Le Ly's farewell dinner and her voyage back to the United States.  Mama Du told her that she has really learned and matured from the war, but most other Vietnamese had not.

"You've done your homework, Bay Ly.  The rest of us--well--our whole world turned upside down because we didn't learn our lessons about getting along.  And we're still in trouble for it, aren't we?  We need to listen to our higher selves, Bay Ly--as you have done--and not so much to each other."

My family and I were watching The Office last night, and Angela Martin said that she is really good at holding grudges.  She obviously has not learned to forgive others yet; she could have used someone like Le Ly to explain to her what forgiveness is and why it is so important.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was a great inspirational book, and I strongly suggest you all rise above our class's expectations and read its sequel, Child of War, Woman of Peace because it continues the life of Le Ly Hayslip, which was barely touched in the assigned book.

The East Meets West Foundation (founded by Le Ly Hayslip)

Heaven and Earth Chapter 13



In order to get a new job with the Americans, Le Ly had to provide a certificate of birth which she did not have.  She asked her landlady Hoa, and she set Le Ly up with a police officer to make her a birth certificate.  She got a job as a cocktail waitress and met another American named Paul, whom she saw regularly on dates for the next few months.  He moved into her apartment and continued to act as her loving husband, but he later left suddenly without telling Le Ly.



Friends



A few months later, she met Ed, an older American man who befriended her over the course of a week.  She did not love him or even particularly like him, but she felt sad at the thought of his leaving.  At the end of the chapter, he offered Le Ly marriage and a new life with him in America.

In a novel titled To Sir Philip, with Love by one of my favorite authors, Julia Quinn, Sir Philip proposes to Miss Eloise Bridgerton before even meeting her.  She agrees to a visit and quickly marries him, although they are in love, unlike Le Ly who does not exactly love Ed when she marries him.

"It's time for me to settle down, Le Ly--to quit pretending I'm going to live forever.  I've got another year in my contract and then I'm going home to San Diego--permanently.  I've got a nice house there and I've decided I want a wife to share it with me--a good oriental wife who knows how to take care of her man.  Le Ly: I want you to be that woman--to come back with me to the States.  If you'll have me, I want you to be my wife."

This excerpt from When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is Foreshadowing, which is the presentation of material in such a way that the reader is prepared for what is to come later in the work.  When I finished the book, I felt that I was missing part of her life, so I checked out Child of War, Woman of Peace, at the library and started reading it.  It was the continuation of Le Ly's life in America and explained her marriage and life with Ed.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 12

After Red left, Le Ly needed to find another regularly-paying job.  She began working at a small bar and casino as a waitress where she later met Jim, an Asian-looking American.  She bought an apartment with him after knowing him for only one day, and he expressed great interest in her mother and son; they even began calling her son "Jimmy."



Domestic Violence Awareness
Ribbon



However, Jim soon began to drink heavily and lost his temper many times.

"Little things set him off--made him lost his temper--and my suggestion that he cut down or stop drinking was always met with either sullen silence or wild accusations about my seeing other men.  Of course, I was sure his problem was my fault.  A Vietnamese wife, even an unmarried one, was always responsible for the happiness of her man."

In 2007, Ludacris and Mary J. Blige collaborated for a song titled "Runaway Love," about three young girls who suffer from domestic violence and who eventually "run away" when they cannot take it any longer.  Their mothers also suffer from abuse, much like Le Ly did when she moved in with Jim.  In fact, he was so drunk and angry one night that he almost suffocated her; the next day, Le Ly contacted the police, and Jim was taken into custody and was soon deported back to the United States.  From then on, she vowed to "never get involved with another man unless marriage was part of the plan."
This song also includes a young girl, only about a year younger than Le Ly, who becomes pregnant with an older boy whom she loves, but he abandons her like Anh did.


After Jim fired a gun into the ceiling during an argument with Le Ly, their landlord came to talk to her, and he told her to leave him.  She was still convinced they were in love, so she told him that she could handle it.  This was an Understatement, a deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is because Le Ly obviously could not handle Jim when he was drunk or excessively angry.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 11

Le Ly got her first real job at the hospital in Danang and was very grateful for a regular paycheck; however, she did not appreciate advances from the Vietnamese sergeant for whom she worked.  Then, she was moved to a different part of the hospital and worked alongside Red, her new American friend.  She began to spend a lot of time with him and even began to wear makeup, altering her appearance to become more American.  Red thought she would be better as a bar dancer, so he convinced her to quit her job to satisfy him.

"I felt like too much of something, that was for sure, but I was so happy to finally please my man in front of his friend that I forgot all the worry and labor and money it took to put on this painted face and the hurt looks my mother gave me on those few occasions when I stayed home to care for my growing boy.  It was, after all, hy sinh--the things you must sacrifice for your man."

In the movie Mean Girls ,Cady Heron is new to her high school and feels pressured to become one of the "plastics." She ignores her original friends and joins the group she thinks will help her achieve success in school. She begins wearing trendier clothes and uses more makeup; she even begins to act snobbier and ignores people the "plastics" do not approve of. Similarly, Le Ly thought she needed to be with the Americans, whom she thought could help her be successful.



Motivation is a character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner or that which impels a character to act. In the chapter, Red is Le Ly's Motivation for changing her appearance and quitting her job at the hospital. However, when she arrived at the club, she realized that it was for topless dancers and left immediately, leaving Red alone and very angry.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 10

In this chapter, Le Ly finally realized that she and her son needed to escape the life they were in, but she did not know where they could realistically go.  One day, "Big Mike," the American GI, offered her $400 to sleep with two other Americans before they went home for good.  She was apprehensive at first, but agreed when she actually saw the money in his hand.  However, the second man left while she was still with the first, and she immediately went home to hide the money.
"I stared at the cash the way a thirsty prisoner stares at water.  Four hundred dollars would support my mother, me, and Hung for over a year--a year I could use finding a better job and making connections or, as a last resort, greasing palms for a paid escape."

In 2001, City High came out with a song called "What Would You Do?."  It is about a young, single mother who feels forced into prostitution to feed her son, but some of the people she meets tell her to "get up off her feet and stop making tired excuses."  It reminded me of Le Ly's situation because both women used prostitution as a way to keep their families alive.

The chorus:

What would you do?, if your son was at home

crying all alone on the bedroom floor, cause he's hungry

and the only way to feed him is to sleep with a man

for a little bit of money, and his daddy's gone

somewhere smoking rock now, in and out of lock down,

I ain't got a job now, so for you this is just a good time
but for me this is what I call life

About three years ago, I read a novel, Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  In the story, Tish Bonner and her little brother are abandoned by their mother, and she is forced to get a low-paying job to support them.  Her manager asked her out on a date, but she really did not like him and refused numerous times.  But when she really needed more hours and a raise, she agreed and went out with him a few times.  Like Le Ly in When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Tish did everything she could to support her little family.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 9

"Daughters and Sons"

"Census takers could only come, take a look at the number of orphans, beggars, bastard Amerasian kids, and "hump-backed" (freshly dug) graves that had increased since their last visit, and know that the village--and the way of life it once knew--was dying.  In a way, Ky La had spawned its own "lost generation": brothers and sisters who had never known love, family rituals, and peace--only terror, starvation, and war.  I wondered how many would know how to survive when the shooting finally stopped."

Last year in World Civilization, we spent a lot of time covering the Black Death and associated plagues.  There were millions of recorded and probably unrecorded deaths world-wide, and even entire cities were devastated like certain villages in Vietnam were during the war.  Everyone in both situations was horrified by the effects of the battles and plagues.

Le Ly began this chapter with a short Anecdote, a brief narrative that focuses on a particular incident or event, about her aunt Luc.   Her family had been killed, and then she eventually died, living in her own filth.

Le Ly also saw her mother when she returned to Vietnam.  At first, Mama Du asked after Le Ly's sister Lan and told her about people she used to know.  She barely acknowledged her long-lost American daughter, but she began to talk to her more and actually let Le Ly hug her at the end of the chapter.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 8

 

A Peach Blossom

 In the eighth chapter of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly remembered a Metaphor, a direct comparison of two different things, her father used to say to her--"Remember, my little peach blossom, revenge is a god that demands human sacrifice."  So, she decided to ignore the men who cheated her and felt that acting upon revenge would lead to more darkness in the world.  Le Ly learned of the enslavement and trade of women, some even younger than she was.  She also wrote about the prostitutes and thieves she encountered in Danang; she did not disapprove as long as the women did it willingly.

In the part of the chapter set during her trip back to Vietnam, Le Ly and Bon Nghe, her older brother, discussed the war, their families, and her coming back to Vietnam.
"You must understand, Bay Ly: the war is still going on for us.  We can't turn trust on and off like a light switch--"

Bon Nghe felt that by her coming back to Vietnam with the history she had, Le Ly was endangering the lives of all of her family members.  He told her that there "were still certain villagers who have not forgotten the war," and he did not want her to go searching for their mother because these people remembered the times when she was accused of collaboration with the enemy.

The situation in Vietnam during the war was very similar to that of America during the Civil War.  Family members fought family members and everyone experienced painful losses.  Inhabitants of each side were always careful of the people they associated with, just like Le Ly's family was when she returned to Vietnam after fleeing in the midst of war.