Le Ly got a new job at a hospital in Danang at the start of Chapter 11. Le Ly quickly became uncomfortable with an administrator who had a reputation for going after young women in the hospital. Le Ly asked Red, her new American friend from the hospital, to help her and Red was able to get Le Ly transferred to the radiology lab. From that point on, Le Ly spent most of her time with Red. Red convinced Le Ly to change her appearance to a more American style. Red was rhetoric saying," Le Ly - you're a pretty girl, but you can't go through life looking like you just stepped out from behind a plow! You look like - well, like a damned Viet Cong or something!" (281). Red then convinces Le Ly to quit the hospital and take up bar dancing to please him.
This chapter made me think of high school. In high school, so many are pressured to look a certain way. Many, like Red, want everyone to look the "right" way even if it is ridiculous. The movie, Mean Girls, is a great example of high school pressure to change. Cady Heron goes to a public school for the first time in her life where she meets Regina George and her friends known as the clique, the Plastics. Cady quickly turns into a self-consious "mean girl" that is not liked at her school.
I love how you connected your story to Mean Girls! I love that movie. It was extremely interesting to me how you made the connection between the characters in your book to the "plastics".
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