In my blog today I’ll be going over my general thoughts on the graphic narrative, as well as highlighting a few pages or sections that were particularly striking to me. Overall, I loved the illustrations and the way they often broke the typical comic book format by often removing the grid or breaking through those lines. I think the dull blacks and greys along with the persistent reddish-orange colouring fit the tone and mood of the story extremely well. 

As for the actual story, I felt it was amazing. Bui’s way of tying her family’s past and how that impacts her own present stuck out to me, especially in the end when she seems to cut that tie when speaking about her son. On the final two pages (pg. 328-329) she says “when I look at my son… I don’t see war and loss, or even Travis and me. I see a new life bound with mine quite by coincidence, and I think maybe he can be free.” This seems to contradict how she sees her relationship with her own parents on page 324 where she questions, “how much of ME is my own, and how much is stamped into my blood and bone, predestined?”, and says how she “used to imagine that history had… seeped through [her parents’] skin and become a part of their world.” 

Two more sections that stuck out to me:

Page 302-305

I chose this section for my close reading assignment, so I won’t go into too much detail. Bui talks about the time a fire broke out at her downstairs neighbour’s place. It highlights the instinctual difference caused by their past of fleeing Vietnam. This section ended with a phrase that stuck with me: “My Refugee Reflex.” talking about her immediate instinct to grab their important documents and get out as quick as possible.

Page 316-319

In this section, Bui highlights something I personally have felt, the inability to see your parents as anything but that. It often hits me out of nowhere, the idea that my parents are two people with lives of their own. Lives that existed before I did, lives that are separate from mine. Though a large part of their life has been dedicated to taking care of me and my siblings, it’s important for us to recognize that they require some type of life outside of ours. I feel like this truth often doesn’t process with people until they themselves become a parent like Thi Bui did.