The Best We Could Do

The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui

Reviewed by W. King, B. Llamas, M. Martinez, E. Phan, and M. Macias-Reza

Review:

The Best We Could Do is a sequential narrative that centers around the history of the Vietnam War. This history is intermingled with the non-fiction narration of the protagonist, Thi Bui (herself), fleeing the war-torn country with her mother, father, and siblings. The extreme baggage of emotional, physical, and mental scars encapsulates the presence of the story that. It is filled with an ever-present wound that seems not to heal and is always scabbing to the realities of Bui life. The family strives for freedom and survives the terrible catastrophes of the war, but the result of these narrow escapes for freedom puts the family in a boundless familial confrontation of misunderstanding and lack of communication.

The Best We Could Do is a graphic novel that artistically depicts Vietnam before, during, and after the war. It is a brief collection of information that is interwoven with the author's narrative of her experience in Vietnam during those times. Like most successive Vietnamese immigrant stories, the family escapes on a boat (hence the term "Boat People") and becomes American citizens. However, the idea of being 'American' haunts the family's identity in the States. The struggle for assimilation sets the tone for their lives in the United States.

Biography:

Thi Bui was born in Saigon on January 1975, three months before South Vietnam lost the war. She came to the United States with her family along with the others in 1978 as refugees from Southeast Asia, known as the "Boat People". Now, she is a middle school teacher that lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, son, and mother. Bui is mainly known for her illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do, that already has many awards and honors like YALSA 2018 Best Graphic Novels for Teens, and 2017 Goodreads Choice Award, Graphic Novels & Comics. She essentially began this novel back in 2002, to understand why her family had to leave the country and start a new life, but it was mostly made up of writing and a few visuals. So she took another route by taking on graphic novels. Much of her inspirations came from Art Spiegelman's Maus about the Holocaust and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis about the Islamic Revolution because they represented a part of history that was personal and relatable to a wider audience (Bui interview).

However, after her son was born the novel was put on hold and gained a different purpose. Her struggles of new parenthood and the teaching she did at the alternative public school for immigrants, shifted her understanding of the sacrifices parents have made to make their children's world a better place (Huffman, Noguchi). Thus, through incredible self-trained artistry, she completes The Best We Could Do in 2017, paying tribute to her parent's story, while intertwining it with Vietnam's complicated history (Zublin). Bui's captivating graphic novel does more than tell her story but also the lives of others, hoping her readers "can see the humanity in others and value of others lives rather than just your own" (Bui interview).

Instructional Resources:

1. Timeline of the Vietnam War

“Vietnam War Timeline.” History, A&E Television Networks, 13 Sept. 2017
This website can serve as a guide to the long complex history of the Vietnam War that is incorporated in the graphic novel. The timeline is split into different significant sections from what caused the war to transpire to the gradual conclusion of the war.

2. Trends of Vietnamese Immigration

Alperin, Batalova Elijah, and Jeanne Batalova. “Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States.” Migration Policy, 11 Oct. 2018
The Migration Policy Institute has compiled this article that highlights every trend and demographics that made up the Vietnamese immigrant population in the U.S since the evacuated refugees were admitted. It includes interactive maps and charts that can be used to have the students involved.

3. Brenda Spencer

“School Shooting in San Diego.” History, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009
This short article provides information on the school shooting in 1979 committed by a 16-year-old, aiming at an elementary school. This incident was mentioned briefly in the novel as the family’s introduction to the United States when they settled into their new home.

4. Interview with Julia Taft

Elliot, Debbie “A Lesson in History: Resettling Refugees of Vietnam.” NPR, 14 Jan. 2007
Julia Taft was the head of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Indochinese Refugee resettlement under President Gerald Ford. In this interview, she goes into detail of the struggles they had to convince the Americans to aid the refugees, with California being the hardest obstacle. California was where the Thi Bui’s family eventually resettled.

5. Intergenerational Trauma

“Can Trauma Be Inherited?” Youtube, Uploaded by SciShowPsych 2 Nov. 2017
A major theme in the novel is intergenerational trauma/conflict. This video provides insight on how trauma does not only affect the person who experienced it but can be transferred to their children.

6. Life of the Vietnamese Boat People

“Vietnamese Boat People.” Vintage Everyday, 5 Mar. 2017
This website provides 30 colored photos on the conditions of life on the boats used by the Vietnamese refugees to escape. Thi Bui and her family journeyed out of Vietnam this was and by provided the students with these photos it allows them to better visualize how it transpired for the family.

7. History of Watercolor Painting

“Watercolor, Watermedia, Then and Now.” Watercolor.net
Thi Bui decided to use watercolor as her medium in portraying her illustrated memoir. This website gives background information on how watercolor usage has transformed over the years.

8. Significance of Watercolor

“Why Watercolor?” The Artist’s Road, 2012
This article interviews different artists on why they choose to work with watercolor. Gerald Fritzler gives a detailed answer on the importance and what watercolor actually does to convey the different emotions needed.

9. The Napalm Girl

Banerjee, Jasodhara. “I took the picture that changed the war: Nick Ut.” Forbes India, 30 Sept. 2018
Nick Ut’s photo of The Napalm Girl, changes the world’s perspective on the involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam. This article gives the history behind that significant photo along with an interview with Ut on his thoughts of the war and specifically war photography.

10. The Killing in Saigon

“Saigon Execution.” Time
The photo of the Saigon Execution by Eddie Adams is another equally important photograph to come out of the war that changed how Americans felt about the war. The website gives a brief history on it and a short audio file of Adams describing the incident. Thi Bui recreates this photograph in her book but gives a different perspective on what occurred.

Grade: 12

Subject: History, Literature, or ERWC

Instructional Activity:

Instructional Plan:

The activity's objective is for the students to practice their academic research skills while learning how to pick out passages from their texts that will support their research findings.

Activity Steps:

1. Students will have to get into groups of 3-4 people.

2. The teacher will hand out slips with the name of a historical event, movement, or reaction that derives from the book.

3. Each student is given a week to individually write a page long report on the historical event that they received. They must implement a direct passage from the text and a source that is related to the historical event.
4. Then the students are given half a week to pick out the best paper from their group. Once that is done, they have to collectively find a picture that captures this historical event well and connect the picture and paper together.
5. Collectively as a group, they have to create a 2-minute oral presentation about the event and present it to the class.
6. Once everyone is done presenting, they have to glue their picture and paper to a timeline that they have to create together as a class. They will be displaying this on a white poster paper.

Example:

The text calls attention to just how difficult it is for refugees to assimilate to American culture using historical references. At the fall of Saigon, the peak of South Vietnam and the US losing the war, many citizens evacuated the country, smuggled through boats not meant for the deep sea. The boats were tight, cramp, and stuffy inside. Bui is able to portray how uncomfortable, dangerous, and imperative it is to remain hidden. Risking attacks from pirates, patrols who could turn them into the Vietnamese authorities, and in one block, Bui depicts children being injected with Valium. However, when this happens, the father Bo says defiantly, “Not my kids. They’ll be quiet.” (238). I found this to be a profound passage and Bui a distant father battling with PTSD and deep depression. The one that Bui’s family went to was a refugee camp called Pulau Besar in Malaysia. Through the story, the family is able to register, have their pictures taken, and be interviewed by various delegations from different countries that would resettle them. At this particular point in the novel, Bui claims that this process claimed them as boat people and not Vietnamese.

Preview:

The Best We Could Do tells the story of a Vietnamese family's experience during the Vietnam War and their escape to America. Bui is able to tell a story from a different perspective in hopes to illuminate the country's colorful history. The changing of perspective allows for an alternate view of reality that is often unknown in the American classroom. We feel that the book is able to serve as a secondary aid to teach about the Vietnam War, the series of events that led to it, and the aftermath that would result in the largest exodus of Vietnamese refugees migrating to America in hope for a better life. This better life, however, is met with many challenges for the Vietnamese refugee who assimilates to American life due to preexisting racism, loss of country identity, and strict immigration policies. Designed with an emphasis on research and presentation, the activity and lesson would occur after the students read the novel. The lesson plan would consist of a brief overview of the Vietnam War and how it relates to the various themes the novel Bui attempts to call attention to.

The Best We Could Do: In Conversation With Common Core

California Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6
Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.8

Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Resources and Preparation:

The teacher needs to get white poster paper and sharpies.
Students will need access to the internet so they can do their research. They also need access to a printer so they can print their picture. The teacher might possibly want to take their class to the computer lab for one or two days.