Swoosh-Swoosh

Pg. 24
“Marriage, in my culture, has nothing to do with romance. It’s a matter of logic. If Mr. and Mrs. Ahmadi like Mr. and Mrs. Nejati, then their children should get marriage. On the other hand, if the parents don’t like each other, but the children do, well, this is where sad poetry comes from. As odd as these logical unions may appear to the Western world, their success rate is probably no worse than that of marriages based on eyes meeting across a crowded room and the heart going va-va-va-boom.”


In Cambodia, based on Children of the River, it’s also based on logic. The parents want to arrange their child with someone who would prove to be a good wife or husband. Also Soka also thinks that marriages in America fail very easily because of all the divorces that happens. Americans may see arranged marriages as odd but their success rate probably isn’t any better. As with Naro and Soka, they are living perfectly happy with each other and trusted their parents arrangement.


Pg. 25
“Since Iranian flavors are quite different from the flavors found in American convenience foods, most of the purchases ended up in the trash can.”


This is the opposite for Ravy. He craves American food. As it said in the novel, he loves burgers and fries and ate them every chance they got. But for the grandma, she has the same opinion as this quote but except for one thing. She never gave the food here a chance and just insist on eating Cambodian foods. She calls Big Macs pig slop after one sniff at it. Another thing about this quote is that American’s flavors are different so a lot of foreign purchases would probably end up in the trash, vice versa to this quote.