Show & Tell By Andrew Lam

Show & Tell by Andrew Lam

Regularly we hear of refugees originating from different nations hoping to find a good life in the United States. Nevertheless, even the Americans themselves can be refugees on other occasions. In Andrew Lam’s "Show and Tell", two characters with rather distinctive backgrounds at first glance, offer regular attributes underneath. This examination is seen through Cao Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam who lands in America, and Bobby Mitchell, a kid who moves to California after being relocated from Louisiana. Cao is particularly marked a refugee, somebody who is uprooted from his home and not completely established in his new surroundings. Then again, Bobby is likewise a refugee in this story, despite the fact that he is an American. By and by, both have the capacity to discover a home through one another. In the story "Show and Tell", Bobby and Cao are mirror pictures of one another.

The refugee status of Cao is seen by means of the loss of his family owing to the Vietnam War as well as his move to California. Amid the Vietnam War, officers named VCs catch his dad and in the end slaughter him. The VCs speak to the Vietnamese military, and their detainment of Cao's father demonstrates how Cao's family is double-crossed. Thus, this obliterates Cao's point of view on his Vietnamese roots, so he has no place else to go yet America. The VCs treat Cao's dad like a detainee by "putting him behind security fencing with other men, all extremely thin, thin and hungry, and they [put] chains on their lower legs." (Lam 121) Cao sees his dad behind "thorned wire", "hungry", and with "chains on [his] lower legs", and Cao feels sold out from this in that his compatriots are abusing his dad like this. These pictures are a sign that the VC are most certainly not agreeable towards Cao and his family. However the truth be told are adversaries that don't need him.

In the end, his father passes on from this and Cao has no place else to turn. His roots, beforehand in Vietnam, are presently relocated and must go somewhere else in light of the fact that the VCs have outcasted Cao's family from Vietnam. This is the essential reason Cao is given a refugee name when he at long last touches base in America. Amid his outing, Cao and his mom make a few stops all through Asia before at long last coming to America. The circuitous course that Cao and his mom take to get to America accentuates the refugee status that they have. Cao relates their trek to America as going on "this truly gathered watercraft. At that point, they got on this island and afterward they got on a plane after that and they came here to live in America." (Lam 121) The "packed pontoon" demonstrates the tumult of moving to America, what's more, further depicts the absence of roots that Cao has left in Vietnam in light of the fact that it shows up he is prepared to do anything to escape. Furthermore, Cao and his mom should first stop on an "island" some time recently loading up a plane for America. The island is illustrative of their lessened refugee status in Vietnam, yet when they load up the plane, they travel to America, another begin for Cao and his mom. The Vietnam War and the subsequent loss of Cao's dad because of the Vietnamese, strengths Cao to escape to America with expectations of discovering new roots. Then again, Cao is not by any means the only one to be uprooted by war and quest for another home. Bobby Mitchell, Cao's first companion in America, is likewise removed by war and leaves New Orleans, his home, to discover another home in California.

Bobby's refugee status is seen through the loss of his family from the Civil War and his move from Louisiana to California. In correlation to Cao, Bobby's turn to California is the aftereffect of the Civil War though Cao moves due to the Vietnam War. The loss of Bobby's roots, be that as it may, is from his dad, as well as a number of his relatives also. This is seen when a considerable lot of Bobby's relatives murder themselves because the loss of the Civil War abandons them with nothing. Case in point one of Bobby's extraordinary incredible granddads had "a major old estate amid Lin 3 the Civil War" (Lam 113) yet murders himself subsequently on the grounds that he "lost everything... for supporting the losing side of the Civil War." (Lam 113) The "enormous old ranch" is more than only a parcel; it is a home for Bobby. By losing this home, Bobby is uprooted from his roots. Bobby additionally loses numerous different relatives incomparable self-destructive circumstances and the demise of those relatives demonstrates how Bobby is further relocated from New Orleans. Accordingly, the Civil War powers Bobby to move to California on the grounds that there is nothing left in New Orleans for him. His move to California, nonetheless, does not totally provide for him another home on the grounds that Bobby's dad in the end abandons them not long after their turn.

When Bobby and Cao land at their new schools, they are both treated like pariahs and cannot agreeably absorb into school. Regularly Bobby and Cao are outcasted from society as one element. Case in point, when Bobby endeavors to shield Cao from Billy's affront, Bobby and Cao are dealt with together as one normal pariah. Billy says, "Everyone look, Lin 4 Bobby's got another beau and he's gonna suck his VC's dick after lunch." (Lam 116) By alluding to Cao as Bobby's "beau", Billy is plainly decreasing Bobby and Cao to variation from the norm also endeavoring to pariah them from school society by making them gay people. Billy too goes the extent that portraying simply what Bobby and Cao will do together after lunch. Since Cao and Bobby cannot completely acclimatize into school, they are not able to discover an agreeable domain that they can guarantee as home and along these lines are not able to root themselves. From their encounters in school, both Bobby and Cao look like refugees in that they both can't settle in their new surroundings in the wake of escaping their country. Besides being annoyed by comrades, Bobby and Cao both look for asylum in Mr. K's classroom. Mr. K offers Bobby and Cao the chance to consume lunch in his room in light of the fact that he is mindful of Cao's powerlessness at school. Bobby discloses to Cao that on the off chance that you know without a doubt you're "gonna" get hopped that day, and then you can "ask Mr. K. truly hard to let you stay." (Lam 115) This demonstrates the part that Mr. K. plays as a shelter for the understudies who are regarded as pariahs, for example, Bobby and Cao.