The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a culture comparison between two cultures Hmong from Laos and a small community hospital in California. The Lee family fled Laos after communist forces took over their country migrating to the United States. Lia was their fourteenth child born in the United States and diagnosed with severe epilepsy. The book is a collection of multiple interviews to develop a story and is a collection of the writer’s interpretations of her observations, following the Lee family that immigrated to California from Laos. It explores two very different cultures and the clashes that occurred when they come together in California medical system. Lia Lee’s family viewed epilepsy as demons that caused the epilepsy and …show more content…
Their language barrier and lack of understanding of western medicine made it difficult for them to administer medicines correctly and the needed to be compliant with treatment regimens to achieve the best outcome. The idealistic physicians in western medicine wanting patients to comply with strict western medicine treatments. On the other hand, the Hmong treatments were considered holistic with Sharman spending hours rather than minutes to treat a patient. The Hmong would have a Sharman perform rituals, sacrificing pigs, chickens, rubbing coins and herbs. In the Hmong culture shared family values, the environment, culture identity and the fact that they would rather die than be ruled is the center of their beliefs. Lia Lee’s parent preferred the Sharman’s treatment rather than the physician’s anticonvulsants. The Lee family’s communication barrier, lack of western medicine knowledge and cultural differences led them to be labeled as non-compliant and this was considered child abuse in the western world, leading to Lia Lee being removed from their home and placed in foster care for one year with improvement. However, at age 4 she suffers a grand mal seizure with septic shock and lived 26 years with loss of high brain function under the care of her

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The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis