Daughters and Sons

The aunt of Le Ly was working the fields one day when she and her son were gunned down by Americans.  Le Ly took care of her aunt, but one day when she arrived for a visit, the house was messed up and her aunt, being paralyzed from the shooting, was on the floor.  She helped her aunt up, but she died soon after.  The village was filled with people with similar stories, once a member of a wealthy family but now has been reduced to a poor beggar.  Hayslip now goes into her adult life, when she is reunited with her mother.  She begins at the agency in charge of returning Vietnamese people.  She asks the clerk if it would be possible to schedule a meeting with her mother, to which the clerk does not give positive feedback.  When she gets back to her niece's home, her mother is already there.  She greets her daughter, and begins to reminisce about her son, Bon Nghe.  She was proud of him for going to school and becoming a soldier.  She was only one negative thing to say about her son: his wife is not great.  Hayslip's mother does not hate his wife, but she gives half-hearted compliments and seems not to like her because of the relationship with the North.  Her mother then moves onto Lan, who also has started a life in California. Her mothers appears to view Lan as a rebel and is not crazy about the way she has led her life.  Then they begin to talk about Ba.  Her original husband returned after the war only to find she had remarried.  "Well, that's where she'll stay as far as the family's concerned- all alone and forgotten- until she changes her ways."  Her mother became bitter about Ba keeping gifts meant for the whole family, and thus isolated her.  Her mother then makes a comment very out of the ordinary about Sau Ban.  She tells of a snake that follows her into the house.  For many reasons, their mother thinks the snake contains his spirt, so she is able to put him to rest properly, instead of the way he had gone.  Hayslip's brother, Bon Nghe then arrives at the home, claiming he couldn't miss the reunion.  A small argument breaks out when he refuses to eat a chocolate that is offered by Le Ly, but in the interest of peace and harmony, their mother lets it go.  Le Ly and Bon Nghe then talk a bit about writing books.  They both want to tell the story of their family.  The dialogue in this chapter reveals the family dynamic.  They seem to be a typical family, arguments and love among other things.  They are determined to stick together and watch out for each other.  Failure to stay honest with the family resulted in the insolation of Ba.  The reader is easily able to connect with the family members by thinking about their own family reunions.