Catfish and Mandala - Essay Example

His identity as a Viet-kieu - a Vietnamese who now lives in a foreign land like the United States (Martin, 2000), had brought him as much challenge as he had ever thought of. At a certain point in someone else's life, there comes a point when, even if the situation tells you that you have been the luckiest man in the world, there is only emptiness felt. Just like Andrew Pham who had been a successful engineer in California, found nothing but emptiness alone even as, according to the norms of the society, he had been victorious against the battle of the foreign land he used to know twenty years ago.

When his post-operated transsexual sister had committed suicide, Pham found it hard to have peace of mind. He blames himself for his sister's untimely death. Thus, eager to find out what brought his sister to commit such unforgivable act, he went back to his hometown to figure out his real identity as a Vietnamese-American who feels out-of-place in a country he had lived for over twenty years already yet unwelcome due to their race. Catfish and Mandala is a book that is a combination of a travelogue, a memoir, and a self-discovery help book in one.

The plot of the story varies from Pham's journey around the Pacific Rim, through Japan and finally through his homeland, covering the stretch of the American-built Highway 1 from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to Hanoi, and the details of his family's struggles when hey first stepped onto the foreign land of the United States. Pham was able to illustrate his family's struggle against racism and the language barrier for which they had felt how it was being a stranger lost in a land you know nothing about.

There was at the same time enough evidences shown in the story regarding the confusions that had them torn between two extremely different customs - the American culture and the Vietnamese culture - that are essential in recognizing one's own identity. ("Paperbacks") The moment Pham had set foot on the Vietnam land, various thoughts of his childhood occurred to him. Although they had been bleak, Pham could remember how his childhood had shaped his future that he holds in his hands at present.

Now, bicycling and looking around the country where he had been born, Pham could not even at the least feel sorry for the people who had remained in the country after the fall of Saigon. He felt hardly against their situation and blamed such luck on their capitalist society. Pham, instead of feeling apologetic about the condition of his fellow Vietnamese of the lingering poverty that they still have after a long time, he felt nothing but to blame them for what they have become. But his quest to finding his own identity had made him feel good, but at the same time bad.

He had the best privileges of being recognized as a Viet-kieu. On the other hand, he had worst experiences for being mistaken for being a Japanese or a Korean. (Martin, 2000)Pham had been able to meet different kinds of people. Some of whom had been like his old friends and some were total strangers to him. Every single conversation with them was like bits and pieces of puzzles that automatically bring itself in its place that makes up his identity. Pham needs no longer find where to put each piece into the right place because it involuntarily puts itself to where