Vuong Pham - Mother Poet's Context & Historical Context Vuong Pham is a Vietnamese-Australian poet who immigrated with his mother to Australia after Saigon fell in the Vietnam War. Pham’s greatest passion was to pass on the legacy of his mother and he does that by teaching English. His mother Pham writes about the sacrifices his Mother made for him during his upbringing, intending to uphold her legacy of sacrifice and positivity. What is the Poet's Purpose in Writing This? The poet's purpose is to express the hardships of the migrant experience, allowing her experiences to build empathy with audiences. Also it gives readers a new perspective of different cultures and people that come form all walks of life. What are the Overarching Themes of the Poem? The overarching themes of the poem is the turbulence of migrant experiences, connections to culture. The author conveys her themes through her use of foreign language and intricate structure, allowing the juxtaposition of her two worlds, which further emphasis her themes. What is the Predominant Emotion/Mood? ‘Mother’ undermines the emotional loving expression of gratitude towards Vuong Pham’s mother. The mother's persistence, the sacrifices she made for him and the legacy of her Vietnamese culture and memories articulate Pham's gratitude. Hence, the poet's expression of gratification is reflective of the deep familial bonds in Vietnamese culture. How does the Poet Write about it? The poet divulges the necessity of sacrifices through a range of language techniques: Motif of grey hair: the motif symbolises the tremendous toll that her journey as an Vietnamese Asylum seeker has taken on her. However, it also acts as an insignia of wisdom and strength to show she was able to overcome these challenges through determination and resilience. Conveying the multifaceted nature of the adverse experience of migrants; How it can both circumvent and exacerbate one’s strength. "I pluck her grey hairs and asks:" "I continue to pluck her grey hairs our conversation lingers as the soft daylight illuminates us." "More grey hairs fall, the past realigns itself and I know now, as I did in my childhood wonder that the teaching legacy passed down to me -" Visual imagery creates an idyllic scene to divulge the mother’s life prior to becoming a refugee. However, this picturesque visualisation is abruptly disrupted by the line “and all of which was the city she will no longer call home” where the sudden transition of mood serves as a poignant reminder of the mother’s inconceivable sacrifice for the person. I picture her driving a yellow scooter on the road to school, the freedom of her hair, a glimmering smile; spiriting past street markets, the soothing aromas of Pho and lychee tea; that familiar crescendo of rickshaws, bicycles and scooters; landscapes of water buffalo, ploughing the flooded paddies from cloud to cloud; each one picturesque from her classroom window; and all of which was the city she will no longer call home. Intertextuality: However, the mother’s sacrifices was able to bear fruit as the persona intertextually alludes to Wordworth’s ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ in their dialogue “Mother, this week I taught my students Wordsworth saw thousands of daffodils and thought of you. Suggesting that the persona was ultimately able to get a grasp on the language. Establishing how through sacrifices the persona was able to break free from the constrictive stereotypes embedded into the collective migrant community. That in mind, I tell her: ‘Mother, this week I taught my students Wordsworth saw thousands of daffodils and thought of you’ What is the Value of the Poem? The poem emphasises the difficulties of managing various cultural identities while respecting a feeling of belonging to our cultural heritage in a constantly evolving society by highlighting the ways in which our past experiences and cultural heritage continue to shape us long after we have left our homeland. Pham hence reflects a desire to understand the past and its impact on the present, thus illuminating the importance of language to act as a timeless means of bridging familial differences to honour the cultural legacy. What Mod A concepts does the poem relate to? MODULE: A Vuong Pham’s poem Mother relates to the concept of culture in the Module A Rubric. This is evidenced by the Western cultural assumption that Asian mother’s lack emotion and disregard their children. However, in Pham’s poem, he contradicts this stereotype by communicating the sacrifices his mother made, such as abandoning her homeland in Saigon and “using a sewing machine for less than $5 an hour to afford rice, pork, Asian vegetables and help pay for my tuition.” Which supports the poem's purpose of countering Western assumptions. k n a h T ! u ! o y
