: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall - Book Report/Review Example

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall How did you feel about the Lees’ refusal to give Lia her medicine? Lees’ refusal to give Lia medicine prescribed by doctors for her epilepsy condition is very unfortunate. I felt that it was unnecessary given the severity of the situations. The refusal is more of risking the life of their daughter rather than acting to save it based on their customs and beliefs. 2. Can you understand their motivation? Do you sympathize with it? I can understand their motivation.

Basically, they are driven by their cultural beliefs which are deeply rooted in their way of life. This is to such an extent that everything the family does is based on their beliefs rather than rational consideration of the situation. This is the reason why I sympathize with the motivation. It is not ideal since the life of their daughter hangs on the balance and their cultural motivation is the decider of the outcome.3. Do you believe it was the right decision to have Lia taken away from her parents by the Child Protective Services?

I believe it was the right decision to take Lia away from her parents. At the moment, it was the only rational decision so that the life of the epileptic girl would not be cut short by the culture clash. The life of the young girl would have been cut short since it depended on the medicine that the family was entrusted to give her. Their reluctance to administer the drugs was reason enough to take away the child.4. Was any other solution possible in the situation? The most probable solution would be to offer supervised drug administering.

The doctors would visit the child or have her brought to take the drugs every day. However, this would be difficult due to the inconveniences and travels involved.5. Were you surprised at the quality of care and the love and affection given to Lia by her foster parents? I was not surprised at all. Given the sensitive nature of her condition, it called for love and attention throughout for Lia to live a hopeful life. It was only fair and normal for the foster family to give her quality care and love.6. How did Lia’s foster parents feel about Lia’s biological parents?

They felt that Lia’s parents were wrong in handling the situation the way they did. They felt that they needed not focus so much on what they believed but participate fully with the doctors for the improvement of Lia’s situation.7. Was foster care ultimately to Lia’s benefit or detriment? Foster care did more harm than good. It did not guarantee that there were no frictions with foster and real parents. Furthermore, Lia’s parents felt that she had lost her cultural identity after coming back from foster care.

All that time, she also had seizures and later a fatal seizure that ultimately lead to brain damage. During the time the two feuding parties clashed in relation to Lia’s care, she was also suffering even more.8. It is clear that many of Lia’s doctors, most notably Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, were heroic in their efforts to help Lia, and that her parents cared for her deeply, yet this arguably preventable tragedy still occurred. Can you think of anything that might have prevented it? The tragedy that rocked Lia could have been prevented with increased awareness to the Hmong community.

Awareness could have focused on getting to a ground where the life of a person is not threatened. It is aimed at understanding the situation and getting both cultures to integrate. With increased awareness and interaction, integration can be achieved thus prevent clashes of cultures. 9. What did you learn from this book? Would you assign blame for Lia’s tragedy? If so, to whom? From this book, a lesson about the consequences of culture –clash is derived. It emerges that culture clash can be dangerous and there is need to put attention on this subject so as to safeguard peoples’ life especially in the medical field (Fadiman, 1997).

I would assign the blame to the naivety of the Hmong culture. The stubborn involved is the reason for deterioration of Lia’s condition.10. Look up how to write “thank you” and “you are welcome” in two different languages and any cultural habits involved. For example: do you need to bow when you say it?Swahili Thank you- AsanteYou are welcome- karibu A person only needs to bow when saying thank you in Swahili language. It is common to say it when one is grateful for anything.GermanThank you- Danke sehr You are welcome – Bitteschön It is not necessary to bow in the German culture while saying these words.

However, there are formal and informal ways of saying the two in German culture.ReferencesFadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.