Rites to the Wind

Rites to the Wind

Lisa Key

English/125

May 31, 2012

Professor Eric Wright

Rites to the Wind

"On Going Home" represents the disintegration of the family unit and traditions passed from one generation to the next. Relevance of how one adapts to marriage or relationships and forming new traditions with one's own family in different localities presents questions with many complexities. Leaving one's old ways of life that gave a sense of comfort and safety, no matter of the short comings of family's members is a hard subject to deal with. A family's customs and traditions afford precise levels of certainty and security. Individuals venture off into new areas and the old familiarities soon disappear and the unfamiliar brings levels of anguish for the unknown or the unpredictable, but one adapts. Home represents a place where everything, and everyone is predictable, it is the comfort zone.

"On Going Home" represents familiarity and comfort most have growing up. Some have many blessings with parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and cousins; large diverse families. These family members and traditions represent stability, safety, and comfort. One may leave the nest and progress, but when one returns home to accustomed surroundings, one often abandons new habits formed in new relationships for the old familiar habits and comforts of home. The new relations are often left in dismay by many traditions, which sometimes reveal bits and pieces of one's disposition never witnessed by new partners. Home is where the heart is; the old traditional home or the new one but Home is where the heart is.

"On Going Home" is a stroll down memory lane where ultimately old habits and traditions evolve; ancient behaviors are lost through the generations and substituted with new more self-indulgent traditions, which are more acceptable in today's political and social society. The story represents aspiration for the familiarity and security of home and its customs but also how new family and traditions are also a part of going home even if to a new home. Life is about change and the ability in which the individual can adapt to a new day and time.

"Who Will Light the Incense When Mother is Gone" epitomizes heritages and traditions transported from one culture (Vietnam) to America and slowly, inevitably yields through subsequent generations to more modern commemorations or disregarded. An older mother, and sister from Vietnam steeped in a time honored tradition; the lighting of incense for the dead and the two are the last of a long line, which leads one's children to ponder; who will light the incense in memory of mother and the ancestors after the last of the generation has passed. The play represents the aspiration to carry on in time esteemed traditions but disinclined to sacrifice the time to continue heritages because of a much faster passed lives than previous generations of Vietnam.

The play represents contrast through the mother lighting the incense on the ancestral alter on the top shelf, speaking with the dead, and asking for the dead's protection. The shelves below reflect the American culture's different ways of commemorating through the observance of photographs, college degrees, and athletic trophies. This speaks of Asian immigrant families trying to preserve deep-rooted traditions but attempting to adapt to new methods of life and customs in America. In mother's eyes, the son had become a cowboy. The Vietnamese definition of cowboy is a rebellious and selfish, essentially an individual who has no use for the traditions from the old country. Mother assumes the new country has seized the children and banned many old traditions.

The best way to describe America's life-style is by the hectic pace of life that promotes the impression it has devoured the population along with the mother's once flawless son. The mother and the son exist in two different dimensions. The son lives the American way of life with fast food restaurants, cartoons, video games, and freeways. Mother may live in America but mother's heart still resides in Vietnam along with its traditions. Both are willing to adjust somewhat, hence the coexistence, civility, and tolerance for the other. Mothers' day consist of traditional Vietnamese morning, lighting of the incense. On the other hand, the son's life is entrenched in travel, speaking publicly, and delving deep into contemporary history. A sporadic dinner and visits on noteworthy occasions are the magnitude of the mother-son relationship.

The two individuals reside in two diverse worlds and are miles apart. Mother desires the son to carry on traditions that have emigrated from Vietnam, but the traditions are unfamiliar to the son. The son born in America prefers American ways to Vietnam's traditional ways; America is the son's home and its many customs. At the age of 70, mother is well versed in Vietnam Heritages, which have been passed down for centuries and mother wishes to carry many of ancient traditions into the future through the son. There is an impasse; one has a wish to continue