When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: Ch. 7 A Different View

Chapter 7, like the title of the chapter points out, shows a turning point in Le Ly as a character. Struggling to support her family, Le Ly spent two years of her life selling souvenirs to soldiers. At that time, Le Ly's mother raised Hung. Saddened by the circumstances of her life, Le Ly tried her best to make life for her son better. Le Ly decides to go back to her home in Ky La with hopes that she could someday bring her son there to raise him in the home she was raised in as a child. Le Ly arrived in the village to find that many of her previous neighbors and friends have left to find a new life or were taken from the village for the war. Her father was left in his bed after he returned from an interrogation beaten.

When Le Ly returns to her home in Danang, she hears that her father succeeded in his suicide attempt. Though saddened and mourning with her sister, Le Ly was able to learn a lot from her father. Le Ly changed as a round character. As Le Ly stated, "If you keep compassion in your heart, I discovered, you never long for death yourself. Death and suffering, not people, become your enemy; and anything that lives is your ally. It was as if, by realizing this, an enormous burden had been lifted from my young shoulders. From my father's death, I had finally learned how to live" (215). Through re-living her life in Vietnam in 1986 and life from the war, Le Ly has grown to learn lessons from everything around her.

This chapter, as a whole, reminded me of parents. Parents, rich or poor, work to support and feed their family. Le Ly, as a single parent, struggled to support her small but loving family. She never gave up and pursued everything she could to keep her family alive and together. Parents from all parts of the world struggle day in and day out to keep their families together and well.