The Hmong Journey and The Odyssey
In 1963, the CIA recruited the Hmong people in Laos to fight in the “Secret War” using guerilla tactics in order to halt the spread of communism. But this war would bring the Hmong people much suffering and hardships. In order to escape, the Hmong people would try to immigrate to America, but the many obstacles and hardships would block most of them. Like the Hmong people, a man named Odysseus in a poem called “The Odyssey” by Homor, fights in a bloody war for ten years, and they win, but the real trouble starts when he tries to go home. He spends another 10 years trying to get home from Troy to Ithaca, where his wife and son were waiting. In some ways, both the journey of Odysseus and the Hmong people are …show more content…
On his way back home, Odysseus stumbles upon a island and explores it. He finds a cave and enter the cave, only to find a horrible man eating cyclops. The cyclops trapped them in a cave to make matter worse. Comparing this to the Hmong journey, the cyclops symbolizes north vietnamese soldiers, who mercilessly kills the Hmong people, slowly cornering them after the US pulls out of Laos. Continuing where I left off, after the cyclops traps them in, he then goes to sleep because he thinks Odysseus and his men are no threat. While the cyclops is sleeping, Odysseus and his men sharpen a wood pole and stabs him in the eye, impairing his ability to see. They then tied themselves under the thick wool of the sheep that was in the cave with them to hide themselves. The Cyclops then opens the gate, to let the sheep go, not knowing that the men has escaped also. Similarity, Odysseus’s escape can symbolize the Hmong people running to the tall hills to escape from the north vietnamese, or even when they escape Laos and live in the United …show more content…
How are they mean? The reason why the mean are mean and arrogant are because they refuse to leave, and treat odysseus family very poor, they eat their food, and sleep in their hallways, they even treat an old man poorly, who was Odysseus in disguise. “Get up, old man, and shove off. You’re sitting in my place” Odysseus then plans to kill them all to regain his throne and to keep it short, he does kill all of them except 2 men who were loyal to odysseus while he was gone. He then was reunited with his family and became king of Ithaca again. This last example would symbolize the hardships the Hmong people went through even after they came to america such as racial discrimination and financial problems. But, the Hmong people worked hard and pushed through all the obstacles and earned in place in America, especially in Minnesota, where over 60000 Hmong people live.
In conclusion, all three of these example can say that in some ways, the Hmong journey and Odysseus’s journey isn't that different at all, even though they take place thousand of years apart, and the Odyssey might not have taken place at all, both journey’s had hardships and obstacles that they had to overcome. They might have lost family or even friends, but both journey’s had a purpose. The purpose
In 1963, the CIA recruited the Hmong people in Laos to fight in the “Secret War” using guerilla tactics in order to halt the spread of communism. But this war would bring the Hmong people much suffering and hardships. In order to escape, the Hmong people would try to immigrate to America, but the many obstacles and hardships would block most of them. Like the Hmong people, a man named Odysseus in a poem called “The Odyssey” by Homor, fights in a bloody war for ten years, and they win, but the real trouble starts when he tries to go home. He spends another 10 years trying to get home from Troy to Ithaca, where his wife and son were waiting. In some ways, both the journey of Odysseus and the Hmong people are …show more content…
On his way back home, Odysseus stumbles upon a island and explores it. He finds a cave and enter the cave, only to find a horrible man eating cyclops. The cyclops trapped them in a cave to make matter worse. Comparing this to the Hmong journey, the cyclops symbolizes north vietnamese soldiers, who mercilessly kills the Hmong people, slowly cornering them after the US pulls out of Laos. Continuing where I left off, after the cyclops traps them in, he then goes to sleep because he thinks Odysseus and his men are no threat. While the cyclops is sleeping, Odysseus and his men sharpen a wood pole and stabs him in the eye, impairing his ability to see. They then tied themselves under the thick wool of the sheep that was in the cave with them to hide themselves. The Cyclops then opens the gate, to let the sheep go, not knowing that the men has escaped also. Similarity, Odysseus’s escape can symbolize the Hmong people running to the tall hills to escape from the north vietnamese, or even when they escape Laos and live in the United …show more content…
How are they mean? The reason why the mean are mean and arrogant are because they refuse to leave, and treat odysseus family very poor, they eat their food, and sleep in their hallways, they even treat an old man poorly, who was Odysseus in disguise. “Get up, old man, and shove off. You’re sitting in my place” Odysseus then plans to kill them all to regain his throne and to keep it short, he does kill all of them except 2 men who were loyal to odysseus while he was gone. He then was reunited with his family and became king of Ithaca again. This last example would symbolize the hardships the Hmong people went through even after they came to america such as racial discrimination and financial problems. But, the Hmong people worked hard and pushed through all the obstacles and earned in place in America, especially in Minnesota, where over 60000 Hmong people live.
In conclusion, all three of these example can say that in some ways, the Hmong journey and Odysseus’s journey isn't that different at all, even though they take place thousand of years apart, and the Odyssey might not have taken place at all, both journey’s had hardships and obstacles that they had to overcome. They might have lost family or even friends, but both journey’s had a purpose. The purpose