When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

Transformation Of One’s Life Due To War

In Le Ly Hayslip’s “When Heaven and Earth Changed Places”, the author Le Ly describes her childhood and adolescence in a small village called Ky La in Vietnam, her experiences and interactions with the Viet Cong, Republican and American troops, the lost of her father and brother, the father of her child, her childhood, her home and how those have affected her from her beginning as a child farm girl to her growth into an independent city girl, and how she learns to live for the future and for her children. Also throughout the book she mentions about Vietnamese culture, tradition and religion that either influence her or hinder her on every situation and decision that she faces. Furthermore, she describes the war’s effect on people and how it has forced them to transform new identities. Like many other victims, Hayslip’s Identity has transformed many times due to the war such as from an innocence child to the victim of rapist, daughter to a teenage single mother, and dependent to provider, during those transformation she has faced many challenges and decisions that against her Buddhist faith, her values and her expected role as a Vietnamese woman.

Identity is what allows a person to be unique in many different ways. People develop or transform their identity through experiences with themselves, with others, and with life period whether you like it or not. The more experiences a person has the more complex their identity is. Hayslip is one of those people whose experience with the war has transformed her identity in many different ways. Before war begins, she is one happy innocent child trying to live her life with her beloved family and friends in Ky La. Everything starts changing and turning upside down as the war begins. She no longer has a normal childhood. Kids at her age including herself are forced by war into extreme and unusual circumstances and growing up playing war game such as fighting and killing...