Le Ly stresses several motifs during her beautifuly account. One of her most prominent and powerful themes, however, is the importance and value of family and respect for elders. Throughout the story, Le Ly is searching for a family.She searches diligintly for her brothers and sisters to return, for a husband for her son, and for acceptance and approval from her parents. Acceptance is another powerful theme that appeared continuously throughout the story, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, as she discovered that a family could be formed anywhere where kindness and love where shown as she states below.
"Now, after nothing more than a good meal and a little kindness, we were almost talking like family." (294)
This quote reflects the "river" and challenges Le Ly has over come in her life. As she litteraly crosses the Cau Do River, she also crosses the threshold of letting go of the past and moving on to the future. She takes an unlikely group of travelers and finds a "family" while she also rediscovers her true family from dating and becoming a mother.
People and children around the world continue to search for a family. Worldwide, there are over 130 million orphans searching for homes(http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/IntercountryAdoption_Statistics), but from 1999 to 2010 the total adoptions by the United States was only 224,615 adoptions (http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php). Thus, there are still thousands of children trying to find a family.
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