While finishing the book Stealing Bhudda's Dinner it was powerful to watch Bich’s relationship with Rosa waver during the scene with the blueberry pies. For a brief paragraph, Bich refers to Rosa as her “mother”. Is this acknowledgement of her domesticity and conformation to the mothers in the media that Bich has been so resentful about? Even though Bich would prefer that Rosa bake a “lattice top pie and cool them on the windowsill” she acknowledges her effort and the brief sense of homeyness she associates with the pies. However, once Bich realizes the failure of Rosa’s gesture, she resorts to calling her by first name once again. This passage held a flat, almost bitter tone during the exchange between Rosa and Bich about the pies, as if Rosa understood that even for a day, she was finally fulfilling the role of a house-cleaning, pie-baking mother, reluctant to admit this feat because it would legitimize her lack of these behavior previously. She proceeds with calm stoniness, declining Bich’s offer for help. Bich refers to her mannerism and voice as “calm as a river covering a bed of razors”. Rosa is protective of her role as a pie-provider, but does not want to admit it as an anomaly. I could feel the tension and Rosa’s unspoken eagerness to prove something in this scene as though I was there.
Finally, as the story progresses, Bich’s undying obsession and fascination with food and eating “American” begin to change. Her tastes mature with her adolescence. There seem to be so many distractions during this coming-of-age time in her life with her family, and the passive role she assumes in the household, watching the teenager-hood of her older sisters, and resorting to books for pleasure. She marks her progression into adolescence as a nonevent, though it had been a time she looked forward to for many years as the day she could no longer eat off of the kids menu. She acknowledges its passing with regret. It seems to me as though her family life has been causing her to withdraw from her sense of identity through food.
In our class discussion of Part 1, we talked a lot about Bich’s desire to be white and her strategies to Americanize herself. In the end, Bich distinguishes between fantasy and reality. To me this could parallel her sense of whiteness, which she sees as a fantasy, accepting the reality of her family immigration. Her visit back to Vietnam paints an even clearer picture of their old, life and how it juxtaposes the life Bich has now for her reality. The separation she feels from her homeland and culture confirm her identity has American, and as a foreigner in Vietnam. She realizes that she spent so much time thinking about what she didn’t have that she never acknowledged what was right in front of her. This is such a real emotion or feeling that I can really connect with. Many times it takes removal from your own life to see its true worth.
It's interesting to me that, as you've pointed out here, Bich seems to outgrow her desire to be white/American and her hunger for American food at the same time that she grows up and out of her family of origin, namely Rosa and her father's house. I guess it makes sense that this is the time when most of us start trying on different identities and desire to discover and experiment with what fits--to find our uniqueness while still remaining tied (usually) to our families.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for bringing up the pie scene in class--great discussion!
I think it is really interesting that you point out Bich's discomfort when she finally returns to Vietnam. Although she grew up feeling outside of American culture, once she is there she realizes how truly American she is. It was, for me, an important part of the novel.
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