Mango
By: Christian Langworthy
My five year old son was being obnoxious at about 9:30 Saturday evening so to tame him I decided it would be best to lay down with him and read him a bedtime story. What better story to read to him then Mango by Christian Langworthy, my personal censored version of course. It is coincidental that this story touches on fatherhood and lack of a father figure. The reason I say that is a large part of the story is about two Vietnamese boys who long to know their fathers. I felt special to my son knowing that I was laying there reading to him and being a part of his life at that moment while these two boys will never have the chance to even meet their father due to their death as a soldier in the Vietnam Military Police Movement, otherwise known as the Vietnam War.
The story begins and ends with detailed descriptions of military personnel, military base and activities portrayed by the military. The intent for this detail was to describe the character make up of “Mother’s clients”. Although the story does not specifically mention Mothers’ profession I am led to believe that she is a prostitute. Obviously she does not try to conceal her activities from her two boys. The two boys walked in the room where Mother was servicing one of her clients: “Mother told us to go back to sleep, but we ignored her and watched” (P 226).
Sa and his brother want to know their father; the desire is so overwhelming to them that they even believe their father’s to be still alive after their mom had told them they had died in the war. In one sentence the narrator even says “I looked at Sa, and I knew we wondered the same thing: maybe this soldier was on of our fathers” (P 232). All throughout Mango the narrator mentions how he and his brother want to know their father’s, “Whenever Sa and I were alone with Mother, we asked her about our fathers” (P 230). At one point Sa went as far as asking his Mother “if she had a picture of his father” (P 230).
I have a sense of sadness after reading this story. At the end the boys still believe they have a father that’s living and the author does not give the two any closure on the fact that they will never come to know or much less meet their fathers. I recalled looking down at my son after the reading and thinking how lucky I am to be a part of his life. As a father it is unimaginable for me to fathom a life without my son. But the unanswered question the story leaves me with takes me away from being too judgmental towards Sa and his brother’s fathers. One major question being does the fathers even know they have sons? After all prostitution can leave a person’s life with complexities that communication can usually solve. If the Mother were to inform the father’s that they have children and the father’s still chose not to come around I would react with more accusation towards the men. In my opinion I venture to say that the possibility that Sa and his brother’s father’s are still alive and the mother simply cannot locate them. In Mango I would like to see some more questions answered and I think the author owes that to me as the reader. I chose to blog on this story because I am a father and it touched my heart, I didn’t choose to blog on it because I liked the story and in a few ways I did not like the story.
Hi, Steven
ReplyDeleteYes, it's truly a sad story. And I can totally understand as a father, how you will feel about this article. I can see you love your son a lot. That's why you want to be part of his life. How sweet it is! I always imagine that one day I will give birth to a child and watch he grows up. That must be the happiest thing in the world. As a parent, he/she needs to take a lot of responsibility. It's kind of burden, at the same time, maybe the sweetest burden in the world. I also agree with you that the children's father may not know their existence. Who can abandon their own child? But maybe there is only one reason for them to leave their son their on purpose--it will remind them of the war, which they don't want to think about. Getting through the war is not an easy a thing, and I know that a lot of people who have experienced war don't want to think about it anymore. It's too cruel. It's their nightmare. Except for this reason, I cannot imagine other reasons for them to not come back to their sons.
Also, I feel sorry about the mother. I don't think she would like to raise her children in this way. Mother always love their children than anyone else in the world. (I think more than fathers because motherhood is so story. Of course, father loves their children a lot.)I feel the mother in the article choose this way to get the money to feed the children. She has no other choices. What else can a single mother do during the war time?
All in all, it's really a sad story. I really hope that Sa and his brother will never know the truth. I hope they always believe that their fathers are heros. That may make them feel better.
:)
When I first read "Mango" I didn't really see what you saw from the perspective of a father. The story resonated with you since you are a father and could not imagine life without your child. I was focused on the mother and the relationship that she had with her boys in addition to what she represented not only in the story but to her two children as well...I suppose I focused on her since I'm a mom. After reading your blog and reflecting back, I think the story is tragically sad for these boys. They wait for their father and yearn to known something, anything, about him. Maybe that is why they idolized the American soldiers so much. They knew that their father was a soldier and therefore, any soldier they saw could potentially be their dad. I don't think they believed their mother when she told them that their dads were dead. I know the mother told them that they were deceased by then later in the story she said one day they would know their father or see their father...sorry, I don't have the book in front of me, but I know she said something about them seeing their fathers one day. I think that she did not know who their fathers were. I could be wrong, maybe they were more than just clients to her but I think she didn't know who they were and had no way to contact them. It is sad for the boys going through life looking at every white soldier's face and wondering "could this be my dad?". I think children need their fathers as much as mothers and clearly these children were searching for their dad. Thanks for providing a different perspective, a father's perspective, to this story.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started reading your blog I was shocked that you would read this story to your kids. But then you said the censored version so we don't need to have "words" ;) One of the things that struck me about this, other than my dislike for the mother, is the fact that the kids did not believe her when she told them their fathers were dead. Why do you think the kids still watched for them?
ReplyDeleteWhat’s up Steven!
ReplyDeleteYou and I are totally on the same page with “Mango” in how much we focused on the father/son relationships (or lack thereof) versus the mother/son relationships. I agree with you point that closure never comes to the young boys in “Mango,” at least on the issue of their father. In fact, I think that gaining a sense and understanding of time as Sa began to at the end, is a big moment in a child’s life. Things take on a completely different look when time is a factor, and once you begin to see things that way, you can never really go back. I thought the ending left me with a feeling of uneasiness. Sa, by gaining the watch, is taking a step towards losing his childlike innocence – an innocence that is a large part of what makes their current living situations possible. Teenage boys in the next room over may not be as comfortable with soldiers visiting at all hours of the night, for instance.
The other issue of the fathers is interesting to me, because until we discussed it in class, I had completely believed that both fathers died in absurd ways. It never occurred to me that the mother could be telling her sons that their fathers were dead as a way to provide some sort of closure for them early on. With such a low chance of ever finding their biological fathers, it might ultimately provide more peace of mind to believe that they’re dead.
In any case, this story definitely portrays a lot of complicated situations. What I like is that no one is really demonized, so you can’t point to one person and blame them for everything (ie: the mother, the fathers, the soldiers). Everyone is just trying to get by.