How to Pronounce Knife

At its core, “How to Pronounce Knife” explores the process of Assimilation and Belonging for a Laotian immigrant family. While this short story is unique to first-grader Joy’s family, the theme of belonging can resonate with many readers. The family attempts to balance assimilating to a new country and maintaining their own identities. For example, Joy dismisses her classmates’ formal clothing for picture day. Rather than feel embarrassed by her casual clothing—a sweatsuit and dirty sneakers—she assures her parents that all is well at school. This self-assurance is consistent throughout the story, indicating her strength in the face of challenges and that her family is not to be pitied. Often balancing different languages and traditions, immigrant families straddle different worlds. Thammavongsa suggests Joy’s family’s journey toward belonging should involve striking this balance in a symbiotic way—learning and teaching, while not forsaking one’s pride ad heritage.

While experiencing life changes, Joy’s family is also dictated by routine, the ways in which they communicate on a daily basis. Miscommunication and Silence inform character dynamics, with Joy’s father telling her to refrain from speaking of their Laotian heritage: “He said, in Lao, ‘Don’t speak Lao and don’t tell anyone you are Lao. It’s no good to tell people where you’re from.’ The child looked to the centre of her father’s chest, where, on this T-shirt, four letters stood side by side: LAOS” (Paragraph 4). He communicates one lesson, while his shirt communicates another. This contradiction speaks to the complexity of the family’s “otherness,” the contrast between language and reading. Like the “LAOS” on Joy’s father’s shirt, the family cannot hide who they are. Joy’s father clearly takes pride in his heritage, but he knows that it “others” his family from their community and advises against voicing this pride.

As for Miscommunication and Silence in the classroom, Joy mispronounces the word “knife” while reading aloud, but does not feel shame. This moment does not silence her; rather, she takes the opportunity to defend her father’s pronunciation of the word, even though it is incorrect. The classmate who corrects Joy, as well as her mother—both being blonde with blue eyes, traits linked to European heritage—serve as foils to Joy’s Asian family. While Joy’s classmate speaks up to correct her pronunciation, the girl’s mother “speaks” with a silent show of power: Her expensive car and formal clothing reflect her socioeconomic status, and with it, the community’s norms of whiteness and wealth—thus linking European heritage to wealth. Likewise, some classmates make fun of Joy’s lunch, due to the chitterlings (animal intestines, a local butcher’s leftover cuts) being a “foreign” dish with a strong smell. However, Joy takes pride in her culture, unafraid of change or difference. Being a Laotian immigrant, she is seen as a racial “other” in her community; her correction by a classmate is technically constructive but racially charged. This dynamic reinforces Joy’s father’s reluctance to speak of their Laotian heritage, as he doesn’t want to subject his family to further scrutiny. He and other adult immigrants often take jobs for which they are overqualified and end up working for younger employers—simply due to differences in appearance and language. Joy’s family lacks resources, but its three members clearly love each other and do their part to survive in their new home.

Thammavongsa provides snapshots of Joy’s life, and it is in the small details, like Joy’s father’s painting of a bridge and her mother’s food, where the larger meaning of the story lies. These details invite imagination, filling the “silence” of the story’s ambiguous setting and lack of character names. There are concrete settings like Joy’s family’s apartment and her school, but beyond this, there’s little information about their community. This “silence” accentuates the theme of Assimilation and Belonging: Thammavongsa suggests Joy’s family does not belong to a specific place, but they do belong to each other. They can still enjoy Laotian customs and items in their new (unnamed) country. Amid their othering, Joy’s teacher Miss Choi—a name linked to Asian identity (indicating either Asian heritage or marriage to an Asian person)—provides a moment of levity, of acceptance, by letting Joy choose a gift from her velvet bag—a puzzle of a plane in flight later attempted by her and her father.

Overall, “How to Pronounce Knife” reads as a bildungsroman, a story in which young Joy comes of age. Though only a snapshot of Joy’s life, it highlights her decisions regarding both external and internal conflicts—specifically, The Weight of Internal Conflict. She must decide when to speak and how, when to reveal truth and when to conceal it. The story’s symbols also indicate a larger journey: Joy’s father’s painting represents a past that the family is holding onto, while Joy’s puzzle represents the future, the freedom to explore the unknown. The “pieces” of this future are there, but the family will take their time putting it together. Thammavongsa ultimately subverts the expectation for Joy to assimilate to her new home by having her family remain who they are. They are defiant in the face of their community’s norms, strengthened by changes.