Critical Analysis of Fadimans - Book Report/Review Example

Each side believed that it was correct. The doctors based their diagnosis of Lia's sickness on medicine and science, while Lia's parents based their diagnosis on cultural beliefs and experience. Since the Lee family was already in America, they at first trusted the doctors who said that there was something wrong with Lia's brain and that it could be cured with medicines. But during the first six years of Lia's life, she continued to suffer. Her parents also saw that the doctors were changing the medicines they were giving because it was not working.

The more Lia suffered, the more her parents thought the doctors were wrong and the reason why Lia was sick was because the doctors did not follow the Hmong cultural traditions before, during, and after Lia was born. This book tells the story of the fight between medicine and myth. When Lia's parents saw that Lia was not getting better, they stopped giving the medicines and used instead the cures from the Hmong culture that they knew: sacrifices of blood and fire, washing with water, and saying native prayers for her cure.

Lia did not get better and became even worse, because when the doctors learned that she was not taking the medicines, they asked lawyers to get Lia into a hospital in Fresno, California so the doctors could look after her. This was a mistake, because she missed her mother so much that she became even sicker and got infected with bacteria. In the end, she had an epileptic seizure that left her brain dead.Fadiman's book is full of drama. It is also teaches about what the Hmong tribe believes in, which affects the way they think and behave.

Some stories are difficult to believe, like Foua giving birth alone at home to twelve children (Lia was the fourteenth!). Maybe Fadiman wants to impress the reader that the Hmong are brave, or maybe Mrs. Lee told this story to Fadiman to show that she is willing to fight for Lia until the end. Or it is also possible that because Mrs. Lee does not speak English well, Fadiman translated her words that are just a figure of speech into a scientific fact that is impossible to believe.Fadiman also writes about other things about the Hmong that are difficult to understand, like their belief that epilepsy is caused by evil spirits and can be cured only by doctors called shaman (p. 21). She also writes that the Hmong do not want to be like other people and fight against "assimilation" or acting like Americans in America (p. 183). She also says that the Hmong believe differently in what is right and wrong, and what Americans find right is wrong in the eyes of the Hmong, and that the opposite is true (p. 242).These are difficult to understand because the Hmong are also people, and even if they come from a culture that is different from that of America, like all other people who have been to America, they can learn how to adjust.

Saying that the Hmong are different is like saying that they do not know how to think. Adjusting to a new culture is always difficult, but it is not impossible. Maybe, Fadiman wants to show this but made it dramatic to explain how great the sacrifices of Lia's parents were when they allowed the doctors to cure her with medicines at first, but when they saw that it was not working every time they saw Lia suffering epileptic seizures, they had to make a difficult choice.This is one problem with the book.

Fadiman says things about other people that are