Best Writings

It all started with the opening of a tall, red, cylinder canister of Pringles. The salty crunch of the chip; the mystery of how they all fit perfectly together; and the round cheery face of Mr. Pringle. From that moment on, the face of Mr. Pringle, and the Burger King Boy would replace Bich’s favorite cha gio and banh chung. Treats of Ben & Jerry’s would replace the sacred fruit of the ancestors. Blonde heads would surround Bich’s black-headed family. The power of God would even test Bich’s faith in Buddha and begin to erase her Vietnamese culture. The memoir title, “Stealing Buddha’s Dinner” represents Bich’s strive as an immigrant to become an American.
Bich had a passionate obsession with American food. Her Vietnamese family didn’t buy hamburgers or make homemade chocolate chip cookies like her friends. She envied them as she ate shrimp cakes and red bean cakes. All the kids at school were eating peanut butter and jelly on Wonder Bread, while she ate cha gio & rice. She felt like an odd one out, and only wanted to belong. She would, “plague Rosa to buy Trix, and Cookie Crisp; Wonder Bread and Macaroni Helper, like all the other kids.” (80) she wanted to fit in with everyone else, with their Kool-Aid. How badly she wanted this new food in exchange for a sticky rice cake. “At home, [she] kept opening the refrigerator and cupboards, wishing for American food to magically appear. [She] wanted what other kids had: Cheetos and casseroles...” (50) The strive she had for the American food represented her hope of fitting in, and being classified as an American, like everyone else. As her new desires for American food grew, her awe in the sacred, sweet fruit for the ancestors lessened.

The fruit was an important part of her religion, and she began to struggle with Buddhism.
Bich struggled between Buddhism and the prominent American faith: Christianity. “There is no God” (64) she told her neighbor. She was faced with Christianity everywhere though. At school, Girls Scouts, from her neighbors; she was influenced from all around. She was surrounded like bugs around a light. She began to “regard Buddha as a stand in for God.” (192) She prayed to Buddha, like a Christian prays to God. She would mixed the religions often, although afraid to use God’s name, she began to believe. Her Vietnamese beliefs were now fading as she blended in with America’s religious society. She knew God was supposed to grant miracles, and when Buddha did not, she stole Buddha’s dinner.

“Buddha’s dinner” is the fruit they put out for her ancestors– a major symbol of Buddhism. She grew angry no one was answering her prayers and stole the fruit, as revenge. She ate the succulent fruit greedily. She threw the core away as “an offering”. This symbolizes her disregard of her Vietnamese faiths and beliefs. Her religion was apart of her culture, and piece by piece it was being swept away in replace of America’s.

The American ways are very different from the Vietnamese culture, and Bich wanted it all. Her short, pitch-black hair stuck out among the blondes of the school. She reached and worked to be like everyone else, act like everyone else, and look like everyone else. Which was a challenge everyday; she said, “My hair never came close to the girls on the box, or girls who tossed their heads in commercials... my straight black hair merely frizzed.” (222) She wanted to pack her food in Tubberware, hoping to impress the girls at school. She didn’t want a statue of Buddha in her room, but pink stuffed animals. It frustrated her constantly how the “typical-American-culture” was just out of reach. Along with culture came language– and she pushed full-steam ahead in English.
Bich was fast to pick up on English, and more than eager to do it. Just one less difference between her and the kids at school. She listened to Michael Jackson, watched soap operas, and read– easily picking up the language. Except, she couldn’t remember Vietnamese anymore. “The grasp of the language began slipping away... the more English [she] read and took in from the TV and radio, the less space [she] had for Vietnamese.” (186) She was becoming more and more American, and adopting her new life as less Vietnamese.

Years later, after Bich had grown up she traveled back to Vietnam. She wrote, “I could not have prepared myself for the feeling of being a tourist in a country where I was supposed to have grown up.” (245) Her major realization, after savoring salty treats, being immersed in Christianity and struggling for a different appearance, is that it was a foolish goal to try and be something she was not. “In truth, everything that was real lay right in front of [her].” (247) What she had tried to be for so long, was no longer important. Everything she was, she was. This book really does represent the struggles of growing up in America, as Vietnamese, and finding out who to be.



The town of Spectre symbolizes a safe, simple, comfortable, but dull life.
When Edward first arrives in Spectre, his shoes are taken from him. The lush grass is comforting and everyone walks around without shoes. No one wants to leave, because outside of the town, the ground will be hard and will hurt, causing one pain. Symbolizing the difficult journey outside in the world. Spectre is like a safe haven from the rest of the world because of the soft grass. There is a choice Edward had make, to continue on safely barefoot, or go outside into the real world and accept the pain it might cause his feet. When Edward decided to leave, to make something of his life, the little girl asks him how he will be able to make the journey without his shoes. He replies, “Well, I expect it to be very hard”. Everything is so simple, safe and easy in Spectre. That’s why people don’t need shoes. Life can be lived safe and simple, like Spectre which stays the same. When staying where it is so simple, moving forward is almost impossible. The poet, Norther Winslow stayed in Spectre and for it, his writing suffered.

Norther Winslow decided to stay in the simple, safe, dull town of Spectre. Spectre stays the same, hence it becomes dull. Without progress nothing can be new or advance. He worked on a poem for twelve years. All it was, was, “The grass so green, Skies so blue. Spectre is really great!” Before he came to Spectre he was known for being an amazing poet, expected to do many great things. He became uncreative and lost his spark, there was no improvement in Spectre. Edward Bloom left though. He did not chose to stay, but to take that chance in the world. He never stopped and never stayed inside the safe limits of Spectre.