ANDREW PHAM'S SELF IDENTITY

The American novelist Thomas Wolfe once wrote "You can't go home again". Andrew Pham proved that wrong. "Andrew X. Pham, who came to the United States when he was ten years old as a 'boat person,' returned to Vietnam 20 years later on an extended bike trip in order to understand better his cultural identity" (Pearl 208). Despite the fact that Pham, like so many others of his generation, were forced to flee Vietnam, somehow they never lost the sense of identity with the homeland they only remembered as children. Pham, as an insightful writer, decided it was time for him to find out if there still exists a bridge between him as a Viet-American and his homeland.

It is important not only to comment on the book and Pham's voyage of discovery, but to realize why he felt it was necessary to go back. Let's face it, there are a lot of immigrants who wish to forget the past, try to assimilate and become first generation Americans. Since the Vietnam War ended 25 years ago, more than two million Vietnamese have fled to the West, mainly to the U.S. The youngest of these immigrants, now in their 20s and 30s, are usually well educated, bilingual and reapers of the American dream. Yet, underneath their model minority exterior, many have complex questions about their identity and their place in the world. Not every immigrant, of course, has either the opportunity or the funds to go back. And, as was mentioned earlier, many of them wan