The Salvation of Men
James F. Cousar
ENG/125
NOVEMBER, 09, 2012
Erin Thomas

The Salvation of Men

Strategies used to convey the idea
A nonfiction short story is way for authors to show the readers a look into an event or emotions they felt happen in their lives...the “On Going Home,” by Joan Didion and “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” by Andrew Lam are the stories I will give a brief summary of the writer’s strategies used to convey their ideas, along with the theme, purpose, and how I personally relate to each story. Finally, there will be a discussion on nonfiction stories and imagination. In Joan Didion’s On Going Home, she express here inner feeling, emotions, and fear of change, while she is stuck in the past. Lam’s “Who will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” focus on new traditions and the loss of old traditions. “On Going Home” is a short story by Joan Didion talks about going back to visit her family home ,the home where she grew up Central Valley of California. Didion talks about the emotions she goes through during her life there and the person she becomes when she is in her family home. She uses imagery and metaphors to describe the events she went through in her family home, and especially when her husband is involved. The family always talked about the same things according to Didion 1968; “we appear to talk exclusively about people we know who have been committed to mental hospitals.” and her husband cannot understand “why (P.620). “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” is a short story by Andrew Lam a family from Vietnam and the hardship that comes with keeping up with American traditions and keep up with old traditions of the past. Lam’s mother thinks that her son has become too American, a “cowboy.” Lam tells us that “a cowboy in Vietnamese estimation is a rebel who…leaves town…to ride alone in the sunset.” (p. 1078). Lam also uses metaphors to describe how his mother views him. Didion uses of dust to show how things were and show the reader that nothing have not changed over the years in the house. In the story “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” Lam uses imagery about the burning of the incense and his mother chanting or talking to her dead relatives shows the old tradition from the past. I can personally relate to the themes of both stories. My family home is one of the places were all my brothers and sister meet for the holidays and cookouts. There are a lot of photos and trophies still on the walls from the past up to the present. There is a lot of reminders from when I lived there some twenty years ago, like Didion use of dust to illustrate thing have not changed over the years. We see all the photos and plaques on the walls that send the same message. When we get together it is a lot of talking sports like football, and basketball, not as extreme as with Didion talking about someone going to a mental hospital. I guess it’s because most of use played some sort of sports during high school and had that dream of going on to college.
Like lam’s mother everybody have some sort of traditions that they want to pass on to their children. We all meet mainly on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving at my mother’s house with all the kids and grandkids. It is a lot of talking and eating. The women are in the kitchen cooking while we men are watching television or playing with the kids. As the years have went by and we have gotten older some of do not show up like we use to because of other obligations. It is something I know my mother want to keep going on if possible.
Witten in 1967 “On Going Home,” by Didion the story is set with her visit to her family home in California and the aspirations of family togetherness. Her use the loss of values and the fragmentation of America after World War Two., to set the theme of the story is the fragmentation of contemporary America. She wants her daughter to know how she grew up and not the fast past life they live know.(Didion 1967)

The theme of this story lies in Andrew Lam’s mother feeling that the Asian traditions that she grew up with will be lost once she have passed away. Lam has forgotten a lot of the old traditions and does not seem to want to help preserve the pass his mother wants him to keep a live.
In the “On Going Home,” by Joan Didion and “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s gone” by Andrew Lam Both authors stories present a message of events and memories in the author’s lives. They talk about family and traditions that is going on or in the past. Didion talk about her family home in California and the difference between it and the one her husband life style. Andrew Lam talks about the traditions that her mother wants to keep in the family and he on the other hand thinks that they are old and not worth keeping up with. According to Lam 2003“Mine is a world of travel and writing and public speaking, of immersing myself in contemporary history. Hers is a world of consulting the Vietnamese horoscope, of attending Buddhist temple on the day of her parents’ death anniversaries and of telling and retelling stories of the past.”(1078)
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