‘The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir’ is a book that captures the sad reality of war, including its devastating implications for families and communities. The author, Kao Kali Yang, narrates her family’s experiences escaping a genocide of the Hmong people perpetrated by the Lao soldiers. Yang uses the first-person point of view, a literary element that allows authors to tell a story from their perspectives. Through the first person point of view, Yang communicates her thoughts on and experiences of war in a relatable manner, triggering readers’ reactions on certain social issues, including the devastating implications of war and the challenges faced by immigrants, while advancing the theme of resilience.
A central theme in Yang’s memoir is resilience in the face of challenges. As a literary device, the first-person point of view is critical in advancing the author’s effectiveness in creating personal connections with readers. Yang’s story commences with her family’s struggle for survival in the midst of a genocide. The writer recounts that her parents, Chue and Bee, met in the jungle while escaping Lao soldiers. The author notes that because of the war advanced by Lao soldiers on Hmong communities, the jungle could be likened to a river of blood (Yang, 2008). Yang’s parents, Chue and Bee, met in the jungle and started a family with the approval of parents from both sides (Yang, 2008). Despite the threat to their lives posed by the Lao soldiers, Bee’s family made sure Chue visited her parents. In addition, Youa, Bee’s mother and Yang’s grandmother, is portrayed as the glue that keeps Yang’s family together through her resilience during the war and her efforts in making sure that her entire family makes it out of the refugee camps and settle in the United States (Lo, 2023). Yang notes that stories about their native Hmong culture bound the family together, making them resilient in the face of challenges.
The use of first-person point of view advances Yang’s effectiveness creating an a vivid mental picture of the adverse implications advanced by war and the need for resilience among the victims of war. The author uses “I” and “my” throughout the book, emphasizing her experiences. This helps create an intimate connection with readers by advancing the latter’s ability to create a vivid mental picture of the events captured in the narrative while advancing the theme of resilience among victims of war. For instance, Yang’s recount of her mother, Chue’s resilience in bringing forth life during a war advances the creation of an ideal mental picture of the adversities advanced by war and individuals’ determination to overcome challenges in the pursuit of survival and personal fulfillment (Lo, 2023). In addition, through the first-person point of view, Yang creates room for readers to empathize with her and other victims of war. Whenever Yang mentions her childhood, she highlights her feelings of nostalgia, allowing readers to think of the happy life destroyed by war (Yang, 2008). Therefore, through the first person perspective, Yang offers readers firsthand information on the implications of war while communicating the resilience demonstrated by immigrants as they escape war in search for safer grounds.
Yang’s utilization of the first-person point of view advances her artistic authenticity. One of the factors that makes a great author is the capacity to appear genuine in their personal narratives about resilience in the face of war. In her memoir, Yang conveys her real experiences as a victim of war, highlighting the plight of the Hmong community under threat advanced by the Lao soldiers (Lo, 2023). As the author narrates about the hardship faced by the Hmong people while hiding in the jungle, readers can relate to her experience through Yang’s perspective. This advances Yang’s subjectivity. Based on the author’s experiences of war, readers can relate to the adverse consequences of conflicts (Lo, 2023). For instance, an adverse implication of war is immigration, which forces people to leave their native homes and settle in host countries, which often necessitates abandoning one’s cultural heritage and the assimilation of new cultures to fit in (Lo, 2023). Yang sheds light on this struggle by sharing her thoughts on how her Hmong cultural heritage hinders her from embracing the American identity fully. The author notes that it is a constant struggle trying to fit into her native and new society’s expectations (Yang, 2008). Through the author’s authenticity and subjectivity, readers can assimilate Yang’s perspective on the struggles faced by immigrants and their resilience in combating the challenges of identity loss.
Conclusively, Yang’s utilization of the first-person point of view as a literary device advances the theme of resilience among immigrants. Through the literary device, the author authentically communicates her family’s resilience as immigrants escaping a genocide and struggling with fitting into a new society. Through the authors’ experiences, readers can relate to the harsh reality of war and the challenges faced by immigrants while emphasizing the need for resilience among victims of war whose voices are often silenced by society’s need to disregard the untold stories of war.
Reference
Lo, A. (2023). Letting Karst Mountains Bloom: Decentering the Secret War in Hmong American Literature and Art. In The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives (pp. 407-417). Routledge.
Yang, K. K. (2008). The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. Coffee House Press.
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