Shadow of the Dragon Novel Essay

Clash of two cultures can affect people’ lives directly. Two cultures can be so various that people can see it clearly and the interaction of these cultures can cause problems. Some cultures can be irrational or even funny for outsiders. The conflict starts when some people are living in a society with a culture other than their own because it can affect the choices they make and that is how the cultures can have a clash, meaning the person should sometimes choose between the two cultures. In Novel Shadow of the dragon written by Sherry Garland Danny, the main character, is very Americanized, when Sang Le who is his cousin comes to America, he makes it even harder for Danny to ignore his Vietnamese culture and he constantly needs to choose between American and Vietnamese culture. Throughout the novel, it can be seen how the collision between American and Vietnamese culture can affect Danny’s and Sang Le's feelings, relationships and how it affects other characters who are involved with them.

The effects can be minor or even unimportant on the character’s feelings, like the way Danny dresses is not Vietnamese. It only makes Danny feel good about himself although sometimes makes “Ba” angry or disappointed but it does not cause any problem. However, some effects are bigger and can cause internal or external conflicts. For example when Danny chose Tiffunny over Hong Because she was too “traditional”, he chose to ignore his Vietnamese culture which was choosing someone like hong to be his girlfriend and instead he chose the American culture and went on a date with Tiffany. later on, he hurt Hong’s feelings and even caused an internal conflict for himself by worrying and blaming himself for hurting hong. As can be seen, the cultures clash can have an influence on each character’s feelings.

In a country which has many people with different cultures living in it. It can be easily seen how the culture controls the relationships of the people. Such as there always are some group of people in every society who have the same nationality and culture among other groups and the reason this happens is that of their same culture and background. As a matter of fact, in the novel, the relation Sang Le and Cobra have is because Sang Le chose to be involved with people who have the same culture as him this also includes Hong and her sister. In other words, Sang chose Vietnamese culture