In the stories “Saving Sourdi” and “Better be ready”, the protagonists Nea and Byron emerge as sensitive and possessive characters faced with harsh realities of life. Both are confronting situations that threaten their dreams, or in Byron’s case, his own perception of life. Nea is the younger sister of a married woman Sourdi and Byron is an old friend of Zach, a man who is going to have a sex change. Nea cannot part with her sister and see her with her husband, whereas Byron is not willing to part with the image of his friend, a man who should always remain a man.
Though Byron is a mature person who finally manages to deal with the situation, Nea is a young girl who has fantasies and dreams that are not fallible in her world. Throughout the two stories, Byron’s journey to realize is that of self-reflection, thinking, and apprehension, while Nea’s journey is that of striving and pushing hard to change the things how they were. In the end, Byron comprehends the situation well while Nea pushes things even worse. Byron comes to terms with the change, while Nea never accepts it.
Both stories impart a message through the protagonists: there are some people in this world who take the world as it is and submit to the realities that are embraced with life, while others want to change the world according to their dreams and want people to be as they perceive how they should be. In this tussle, those who do not have the power to change the world have to compromise. Byron and Nea both fall in the latter group, while Sourdi and Zach belong to the former.
Sourdi is that kind of woman, always giving in to world norms and realities. Nea is not ready to accept this and she is forced to challenge these realities by her dreams. Similarly, Zach is faced with the reality that he is trapped inside the wrong body, but Byron is not able to comprehend this and thinks this is abnormal for a man to become a woman. These differences create tensions between the characters of the stories. Byron just tries to part himself from the old friend and judges the situation calmly. Whereas Nea pushes too hard only to make matters even worse. She tries to get her sister back but only ends up driving her away from herself.
Another similarity between the two characters is their decisive nature as they seem to make decisions for others. Although Byron just had a wish while talking to his baby boy that he was going to grow up to be a man, he did not realize what was in store for his son in life. In the other case, Nea is almost coercive and compelling as she always tries to figure out what is best for her sister. She tries to control the situation, thus causing some unpleasant events in the story that only threatening her own dreams and Sourdi’s love for her. When a drunken man at the restaurant was stabbed by Nea who thought she saved her sister, Sourdi was not happy. Similarly, Nea’s attempt to draw a conflict between Duke (Sourdi’s friend) and her husband Mr.Chhay brought embarrassment for herself and her sister.
Nea’s quest to stay close to her sister and drive away all those who came in between them is driven by an intense love for her sister, intermingled with her sense of loneliness and insecurity. Sourdi and Nea have lost their parents and Sourdi are like a fatherly figure for Nea in the story. She recalls her early days of childhood when Sourdi expressed her love for her. Throughout the story, Nea recalls various memories of the past when she and her sister were together.
It is interesting to note when Nea recalls “We used to say that we would run away, Sourdi and me”, and that they used to “lie awake all night, whispering back and forth.” (Chai 123) This suggests a close bonding and love between the two sisters before Sourdi’s marriage. Sourdi gave in to the changing times and probably comprised her love for Nea. But Nea was trapped in that fantasy, that they would live together forever.
Byron’s case is more complicated and apprehensive. Byron’s confusion and fears about his friend’s plan of changing sexuality are caused due to the image he had formed over the years. His doubts were due to his own conceptions about the world. His journey to accepting this harsh fact is the subject of the story. He tries to cope with the news on his own. He starts to think about his own self and how he could deal with the situation himself. He also applies makeup to his face to experience the unknown feeling. This also shows how deeply gripped he was by the situation. The shock that shook him badly had its roots in the perception he had of his friend.
He could not imagine his lifelong friend as a woman whom he had known as a man for so many years. But he acted maturely as compared to Nea. Byron thought, reflected, and tried to experience the situation his friend was facing. He did not try to compel his friend to change his decision or pushed him too hard to accept his view of the world. Rather he quietly studied the circumstances and in the end, he accepted the situation as normal.
He realized that his son could grow up to be anything. At the end of the story, when he met Zoe, a woman that Zach had become, he squeezes her hand to possibly express his sympathy and agreement with the change. In this journey, Byron realized many realities of life that he would never have otherwise. His journey was not only that of accepting change but also of self-realization.
Bibliography
Michael, Meyer, comp. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2005.