Nguyen Reading, Annotations, and Commentary
Nguyen provokes readers by telling stories of racism she has experienced. By sharing her most negative stories, readers are able to take a look into the life of someone with a Vietnamese name.(U) She begins by asserting her name “made [her] visibly miserable”, then follows the statement with evidence of why she is so miserable(Q). This evidence includes personal anecdotes, stories, and quotes of racism and embarrassment towards her own name. I found the sheer abundance of stories Nguyen could tell to be the most provocative aspect of this piece. The amount of racism that this author can just simply list as factual evidence towards her claim shows the reader her true numbness to encountered racism. (C)(E)(U)
- Nguyen covers many accounts of racism she’s experienced —This is used for shock factor and to help back her claim
- The evidence is not introduced until a few paragraphs into the article—This creates build up and clumps all of her accounts of racism together, almost bombarding the reader
One thought on “Nguyen Reading, Annotations, and Commentary”
I agree that the stories she shared definitely did have an impact on the story as a whole, and really set the mood for the reading. It’s hard to understand how a name can have this large of an impact on someone’s life, but understandable at the same time. Especially if you had just moved to America, felt out of place, and had to walk around with a name that made you feel even more out of place. At the same time, holding the kind if grudge against your own name can be so unsettling. you’ll have buried resentment you didn’t even know you had, towards your parents for naming you that, towards your culture for having common names that were so different from American names, it’s just not healthy.