She also mentioned that while she marched for freedom, she viewed many children crying from hunger as well as witnessing parents poisoning their babies with opium to avoid being detected while hiding in the jungles in the attempt to flee (Katsuyo, 1990). .
Though Mai and her family were successful in fleeing from Laos to Nong Khai, Thailand, many other families were not so lucky. They were fired upon their backs by the Red Army and were forced to return to their villages.
In general, Mai and her family received the opportunity to come to the U.S. and flee from the gruesome killings the communist soldiers launched upon their small villages. Though they live by different surroundings and a wide range of diversity throughout Santa Ana California, their family's heritage and traditions are never forgotten. She envisions returning to live in her homeland and remember the peaceful moments her and her brother cherished at one time in the mid 70's. .
Author's World View.
Mei's world view can perhaps pertain to two main elements. First, she describes her homeland as a peaceful and quiet environment even though the lifestyle of the town was not wealthy. The small town practiced their traditional customs frequently such as farming, hunting, fishing, harvesting, and even hunting wild life as a means of obtaining food sources for survival. .
Secondly, Mei's view of the world changed due to the march to freedom when she realized how much she needed to sacrifice in order to obtain the freedom she once had in her home town. Mei and her family realized the only way to evade the communist soldiers was to become refugees and sacrifice leaving everything behind for their own safety. Even though being forced to move from Laos to settle along the west bank of the Mekong River was a difficult challenge for many families, the pattern of population displacement that arose from power struggles between neighboring groups, has continued to carry on over centuries (Fox, 1998).