How Thi Bui shows her "DNA"

 All of our lives come with a series of complex stories that slowly build up to our own. However, most of us fail to recognize the weight of these stories: the stories of our ancestors. Thi Bui’s novel “The Best We Could Do” certainly isn’t shy of representing family heritage. It explores a theme of generational struggle and how it was passed onto Thi at a very young age.  




Although the story of Thi’s ancestors gets dark at times, it represents who she is. Thi does a very good job at drawing a parallel between the relationship between her and Bo with the relationship between Bo and his parents. For example, in chapter 2 Thi explains how her father grew up poor and was constantly seeking refuge against the French whilst facing parental neglect. This neglect got so bad that he eventually had to live with his grandmother, growing up to resent his parents for the rest of his life. This resentment is parallel to the terror that Thi associated with the image of her father at a young age because of his abusive and strict nature. This is exemplified when she says, “I had no idea that the terror I felt was only the long shadow of his own.” (page 129) 

Asking Thi’s father why he became “the way he was” leads to a realization of the struggle and pain that her ancestors had to go through; a pain that goes much deeper than parental neglect and stems from a life of struggling to survive amid war. Understanding where you come from is an important part of your identity; even Thi Bui hadn't realized the weight of her heritage before she came to know about the story of her father.  


This is reminiscent of the song “DNA” by Kendrick Lamar. In the opening chorus of the song, Kendrick says “Quarter piece, got war, and peace inside my DNA. I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA. I got hustle, though, ambition flow inside my DNA.” These lyrics are parallel to what Thi is trying to convey in her novel: although she spent most of her life in San Francisco, her parent’s struggle in Viet Nam is imbedded into her DNA and is a part of her identity. Writing this novel not only helped Thi discover her identity but also helped to mend the relationship between her and her parents. After all, you can never truly understand someone unless you ask them “why?”. 

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