China Men - The Brother in Vietnam Essay -- Maxine Hong Kingston China

China Men - The Brother in Vietnam  In her tale, The Brother in Vietnam, author Maxine Hong Kingston relates the drastic misinterpretation of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet on the part of  the brothers students.  It is reform to the reader that their disillusioned thoughts and ideas of the world were instilled in their undefended minds by their own parents at young ages, an occurrence that still takes place in our society today.     In his account of the situation, the brother first clearly makes a note that these confused and suspicious students comprise not one of his elementary classes, but rather his only(prenominal) non-remedial class.  From this he is evidently implying that one would expect a heightened ability to understand and more accurately analyze the power and beauty of great literature on the part of the students.  Thus from the beginning, the reader is alerted to the fact that their confusion is not due to the difficulty of the materi al, but rather is the product of some underlying factor.  In this commission the students perceive this Shakespearean tragedy as a horror story, the mere thought of it shadowed in their minds by fear.  They see the Montagues and Capulets as families driven sick(p) Verona as a plague-infested country where killing and marriage take place in dark regions alike.  They infer from it that young love is dangerous, and by reading of a suicide made possible by a potion that was initi in ally intended to preserve tender love instead of stealing it, their notions that there is evil in everything seem to be confirmed.     The brother, frustrated and upset, is unable to shift the emphasis that the play has left on these youths, and he feels... ...protective shield around their children.  Do they really believe this is to the benefit of our youth?  It is understandable to want to protect children from unnecessary evils, but sometimes in constructing walls arou nd their worldly vision they are in all actuality cutting their children off from reality.  It is so much healthier and helpful to confront these issues head-on, rather than trying to skirt around them.  In fact, in the long-run, as flock be seen through the misinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet by the students, such avoidance of the matter at hand will often prove more harmful in the development of young minds.     Through the various misconceptions of the children in her short story, The Brother in Vietnam, Maxine Hong Kingston allows her reader to see just how necessary truth is to the vulnerable minds of our youth.