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.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 7

Le Ly continued her job selling wartime souvenirs for about two years.  Her mother basically raised Hung while she was away, which was most of the time.  My first cousin, once removed, Ingrid had a daughter when she was very young, and her parents raised Hillary until she was nearly an adult.  The situation is very similar to Le Ly's, except she started to take care of her son when she took him to America with her and my cousin Ingrid did not.

Le Ly was also able to return home for a short visit with her father.  She learned that he had been imprisoned and beaten numerous times and found that many people her age had left the village to join the war or start their own family.  After she arrived back to Danang, she heard news that her father had indeed succeeded in his next attempt at suicide and mourned with her sister.  However, Le Ly was able to learn a lot from the passing of her father.
"I was no longer confused about where my duty lay--with the Viet Cong?  With the legal government and its allies?  With the peasants in the countryside?  No--my duty lay with my son, and with nurturing life, period. ...From my father's death, I had finally learned how to live."

The death of Le Ly's father was a Turning Point, the point in a work in which a very significant change occurs, for her because she was able to realize her duties in her life.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 6

"...my father decided that a life without his family was not worth living.  When he was finally released, he bought a box of rat poison in Danang and consumed it with a final meal at hour house.  Fortunately, his hereditary "warrior physique" was stronger than his spirit and the poison only sickened him."
After Le Ly and her mother left Ky La, her father was extremely upset without any members of his family.  He began to hallucinate, drink heavily, and eventually attempted suicide.  Each year, over one million men, women, and children commit suicide throughout the world; however, 10 to 20 million attempt suicide and fail, like Le Ly's father.

Le Ly moved into her sister Lan's apartment and began to work as her personal maid.  In Danang, Le Ly gave birth to her son (Hung) and started her new job selling Vietnamese handicrafts and other items to the American GI's.  She made enough of a profit to start renting her own aparment where she would live with her mother and son.  This made Le Ly independent, and she was able to finally enjoy life a little after years of turmoil.

In the chapter, there was a Maxim, which is a concise statement, often offering advice, or an adage.  Le Ly recalled, Tranh nha nguoi le dung get nha nguoi lun, which meant, "Don't sign contracts with the cross-eyed; don't get short-changed by a short man."  However, she ignored this proverb and continued to interact with the "short, fat fellow with glasses," who greatly appreciated the attention she gave him.

Many times, I have read a book called The Infidel by Georgia Elizabeth Taylor in which Jimenita, the main character, spends a lot of time with a man considered ugly by everyone but her.  They become good friends and actually fall in love by the end of the novel after the man she originally loves is murdered.  This is a great novel, and I was immediately reminded of it after reading this chapter in When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 5

When Le Ly's mother found out that she was pregnant, she immediately sent Le Ly to a druggist for a potion that would get rid of the baby.  He gave her something to make the baby stronger instead, and she eventually gave up trying to kill the baby.  Lien, Anh's wife, realized it was her husband's child and promptly wanted to  throw them out of the house; however, Anh took pity on the pair and arranged an apartment for them in Danang and payment for them and her unborn child.

In my favorite show, One Tree Hill, Karen Roe (on the right) has a son named Lucas (on the left) and raises him all by herself.  She was abandoned by Lucas' father, Dan Scott, when she told him of the pregnancy; they were teenagers at the time, just like Le Ly was when she was pregnant with her first son.  She also does not receive support from Anh, the father of her child, after they separated.  However, both women succeed and raise healthy, intelligent boys.

Le Ly was not really angry with Anh when they left, and when she met up with him on her trip back to Vietnam in 1986, she greeted him warmly because she realized she loved him only as a brother, not a lover.

"He has become my brother--the brother of my soul--and I his soul sister.  Knowing it or not, he gave me a son and helped put me on a life course that brought me to America.  For that I can't be anything but grateful."

Later in the chapter, Le Ly has a Flashback of her older brother, Sau Ban.  A Flashback is the insertion of an earlier event into the normal chronological order of a narration.  She remembers him as her constant childhood companion.  He played with her and always offered to help others around their village, but he was quickly called away to help the goverment with their projects.  He married Nham in 1962 and was killed a year later without any children.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 4

In the fourth chapter, Le Ly and her mother left Ky La after being accused by the Viet Cong of collaboration with the enemy.  They went to Danang in order to find somewhere to work away from members of the Viet Cong.  They found a suitable home with Lien and Anh, who became Le Ly's first love; he soon became more than just her employer.

Le Ly and her mother left Ky La in search for work to help support their family.  This reminded me of the many immigrants who arrive alone in America so that they can work to support their families remaining in their home countries.  They find some kind of work, then send most of their paycheck back home, much like Le Ly and her mother did.  However, she was very upset at the thought of leaving her father and hometown.  So when Anh offered his love, Le Ly eagerly cherished any feelings which reminded her of her loving father back in their village.

Le Ly's mother realized that her daughter and their mistress were becoming more intimate, and she began to drop hints to Le Ly about ruining Anh's family and being thrown out of his house.
"She couldn't see how it broke my heart to be caught in this dilemma--to accept Anh's love, wrong another woman, and endanger his fine family; or reject him and not only risk our own position but lose this small bit of happiness I had finally found in life.  What was I to do?"

However, Le Ly ignored her mother's warnings and grew more intimate with Anh.  When he visited her in her bedroom, she had an Epiphany.  She realized that genuine love between a man and a woman was possible.  An Epiphany is a moment of sudden revelation or insight, and it changed the way Le Ly viewed the world and her life tremendously.  She wished dearly for a family with Anh; little did she know that she would have his child within the following year.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 3

Le Ly Hayslip named the third chapter of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places "Open Wounds" rightfully because violence against her was a common Theme.  A Theme is defined as a central idea of a work.  Le Ly began to serve as a watchman and reported her findings back to the Viet Cong.  She was imprisoned by the Republicans because they suspected her of aiding the Viet Cong; she was then sent to a high security prison where she was tortured numerous times for withholding information.

"Within an hour two guards came to my cell and pulled me into the corridor.  They didn't even wait until I was in the interrogation room to brutalize me, but banged me against the walls and punched me with their fists, shouting threats and accusations as we went."

While I read this chapter, I remembered the book Night by Elie Wiesel, which we read as a class in the eighth grade at Nativity.  In the book, Elie was dragged from his home and placed into Auschwitz.  He was tortured, and most of his family members and acquaintances were hideously murdered by the followers of Hitler, the Nazis.  Similarly, villagers of Ky La were undeservedly murdered by Republicans and Viet Cong alike because they were suspected of involvement with the opposing party.

I also thought of the popular song by the Black Eyed Peas called "Where is the Love?."  Here is the chorus:

People killing people dying
Children hurtin you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?
 
This song addresses issues of violence against innocent adults and even children, which was a very unfortunate occurence daily in Le Ly's home village of Ky La.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 2

In the second chapter of Le Ly Hayslip's memoirs, she was drawn more and more into the war.  During the nights, she, along with most of the other village children, began to attend secret meetings of the Viet Cong and became part of their "political cadre," and they were taught to steal weapons and ammunition from the Republicans.  Cadre leaders promised that if the children were to die because of the Republicans (for no reason or for withholding information), then they would "live on in history."  Le Ly was also imprisoned for the first time in her life after the Republicans found her, hiding from their bombardment, in a ditch.
In this clip from Forrest Gump, the American soldiers are seen passing through a village, much like Le Ly's; they also took part in a battle, which destroyed much of the village and surrounding area.

 

"Although I was still blinded by my young girl's vision of glory, I began to see dimly what a terrible spot the war had put him [her father] in.  For me and most other children, the new war was still an exciting game.  For my father, it was a daily gamble for life itself."  Le Ly and her childhood friends often played a game where they would spilt up into the Viet Cong and Republican soldiers and then conducted mock battles.  When the real war began, the children originally remembered their games and did not think too heavily on the reoccurring battles.  Clips like these from movies regarding the Vietnam War really help me see what the war was like.  Similarly, once Le Ly had been manipulated enough, she began to realize the realities of war, which meant that the games were over.

In this chapter, Le Ly, along with everyone else in Ky La, was faced with a major Dilemma, a situation that requires a person to decide between two equally attractive or equally unattractive alternatives.  The village was expected to support the Viet Cong and turn in Republican soldiers; also, the Republicans demanded that they care for their soldiers and house them in the villagers' own homes.  Le Ly had siblings living in both the South (her sister Ba) and the North (her brother Bon), and she did not know which side was "right." However, she obeyed the Viet Cong soldiers who promised her life and esteem for following their cause in the war.

Heaven and Earth Chapter 1

By the time I finished the first chapter of Le Ly Hayslip's memoirs, I was completely fascinated by her story; in fact, I finished reading When Heaven and Earth Changed Places in about six days. I found the short, frequent stories about her childhood very interesting, particularly because they were so different from my memories as a child. Obviously, Vietnamese people experience different lives and have different cultures than Americans, and I could not really connect with many instances she wrote of because of those vast differences.
Le Ly's village had songs or proverbs for nearly everything that occurred in daily life; her father sang songs about the government, politics, and the war, while her mother voiced clever proverbs preparing her children for independent life.
These proverbs are Adages, which are familiar proverbs or wise sayings.

• "That's why I tell you and your sisters dung gan dan ong-stay away from the man, eh?"--- Le Ly's mother was part of a society where they believed God to impregnate women, and he signaled this to them by having men come near; therefore, she advised her daughters to stay away from men unless they were married.
•    Other common village proverbs were: "Ga trong nuoi con! (There goes a rooster who thinks he can hatch chicks!)," "Better to sell cheap than not sell at all!," and "Mau len lam co di!" (Do you think that grass will pull itself?).

I found the customs the inhabitants of Ky La, Le Ly's childhood village, had established for marriages also very interesting.  "In fact, wife-beating was so common it was accepted as a necessary way for men to blow off steam and, oddly enough, keep the family together...We accepted wife abuse without condoning it--as an unfortunate but sometimes inescapable part of life, like hard work and disease."  Le Ly included this passage to show that her parents and the other elders of society were in charge, well respected and therefore rarely contradicted.
The concept of arranged marriages demonstrates just how different this society is from our society as Americans.  It immediately brought me back to the eighteenth century English society where parents arranged marriages for their children based on wealth and social status.