Identity

Libby Dulski
9/21/16
Reading Response #3
Stealing Buddha’s Dinner Ch. 10- Finish

Bich’s identity is a constant theme throughout Stealing Buddha’s Dinner. Bich idolizes her older sisters Anh and Crissy as they are naturally beautiful and popular. Crissy would never allow Bich to socialize with her and her older friends, yet one day she allows Bich to tag along. On this particular day, Crissy prepares “tests” for Bich to partake in. One of these tests involved eating a stick of rhubarb covered in sugar. Another one of these tests is when Crissy rolls a ball of mushed bread in honey and urges the other girls to do the same. Nguyen describes that there is “something repulsive, something gruesome, about breaking down the bread. I wanted it to stay firm and spongy… Crissy took in my frozen stance with another eye-roll. “You’re such a wimp,” she sighed” (133-134). This was a major turning point for Bich: In that moment, she knew that she would never follow after Crissy again. Sure, Bich could look up to Crissy and Anh and revel in their beauty, but she would never want to be part of Crissy’s group. Nguyen describes this turning point as “such a small thing- a stalk of rhubarb, a ball of bread and honey. Yet it’s stark in my mind as a moment of withholding. A moment of dissent, marking myself as the one who would not go along, into the club of girlhood” (134). It is clear that in this moment Bich decides that her fate as an outsider is her own choosing. She will stay with her books and unruly hair instead of following her sister’s cigarettes and makeup.

            In the “Salt Pork” chapter, Nguyen describes how she fell in love with reading. She describes reading as “the only thing to call [her] own. Reading was [her] privacy” (150). In particular, Bich feels a connection to the Little House books. At one point she “began to pretend that bacon was salt pork and that [she] was Laura herself. She was short and small like [Bich]” (158). Unable to find connections with people in her real life, Bich looks for connections with people in her books. She finds this connection as she describes the Ingalls: “In many ways, their pioneer life reminded me of immigrant life. As they search for new homesteads, they, too, experience isolation and the scramble for shelter, food, work, and a place to call home” (159). Yet as much as Bich finds a connection with Laura Ingalls, she cannot help but resent some of the other characters. As Bich grows older and continues to read the Little House books, she notices that the Ingallses were extremely religious and reminded her of the Vander Wals. The Ingalls were also racist which is upsetting for Bich. Even though Bich searches for a connection with this all-American white family, she cannot help but feel distain for the family as she does not share the same beliefs as the family. However, as much as she resents some of the characters and ideas in these books, Bich could not help but wish that she could be like the protagonists in the books; she longs to be all-American.