The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Journalist Anne Fadiman, perfectly illuminates the tragedy that can result when two cultures collide and people’s judgment is hindered by the inability to see the world from others’ point of view. After reading Candida Gillis’ article, this novel was the first thing that came to mind. This book provides an example of multiple narrators similar to the ones discussed in Gillis,’ Multiple Voices, Multiple Genres. Various genres are also featured in this novel, including articles from periodicals, historical anecdotes about the Hmong people (who originated in Laos), and a biographical story mainly narrated by Fadiman. However, the reader also gets to hear the story from the viewpoints of two American doctors, as well as the view of a Hmong family whose young daughter suffers from epilepsy. I truly recommend reading this book because it teaches you the tragedies that can result when people fail to understand one another. A child ends up dying because of the barriers presented by culture, language, and beliefs. If you fail to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and fail to see things from behind the eyes of their various cultures, then you fail to see anything at all.
The title of this novel refers to the Hmong term for epilepsy. Their culture does not even have a word for this terrible disease. They don’t even view it as a physical disorder, but as a mental one in which your soul gets lost from your body. American doctors find it hard to grasp this concept of having a mind that is separate from your body. They make the distinction between body and soul, while the Hmong see it as a single entity. The Hmong people believe that sacrificing animals will make your soul return back to you. Western medicine encompasses a much different approach, in that your mind is connected to your body and must be healed with medicine as opposed to animal sacrifice.
For a summary and review of this book, go to http://us.macmillan.com/thespiritcatchesyouandyoufalldown#.
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It is extremely hard to understand certain beliefs held by people in a different culture than your own. It's one thing to know these other beliefs and the meaning behind them but it's another thing to change your own beliefs to accommodate for this new information. It takes a lot of explanation and experience to accept another person's values or perspectives. Take religion for example, (which I realize is a very sensitive subject) there are so many different religions in our world. I am always curious to learn about different ones, the background, prayer, traditions, etc. I feel like religious people have so much faith and they believe their views are the right/correct ones. So my question is, how can there be so many different religions and only one of them be the right one?
I think it's important to incorporate different "voices" and different genres in the classroom. Knowledge is power and the more a child is exposed to different cultures, views, and genres the easier it will be for that child to work well with other people and especially people different than themselves. Children will have more information to pull from when trying to solve a problem. They can benefit greatly from this exposure.
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