Humor and Resilience Theme Analysis

Although life in Stung Meanchey can be dreary and difficult, the most resilient characters in the story use their sense of humor to buoy their own spirits, remain optimistic amidst hardship, and even challenge inequitable social conventions. The villagers’ use of humor to cope with hardship and point out absurd social conditions suggests that humor is not as frivolous or nonsensical as it may sometimes seem—it can be a positive coping mechanism to help one persevere against difficult environments, stressful events, and unjust situations.

Sang Ly, Ki, and Lucky Fat all employ humor to cope with hardship, danger, and fear, demonstrating that a good sense of humor can be a valuable tool for persevering amidst difficulty. When gang members rob and beat Ki, leaving him with a potentially life-threatening head injury, Sang Ly copes with her fear as she tries to tend to his wound by play-acting as if she is a professional nurse, which helps her to stay calm and focus on helping Ki. Rather than panicking or succumbing to pressure, Sang Ly’s playful attitude in spite of her fear demonstrates that humor can be a useful tool to help one cope with the stress and fear of physical danger.  In the same manner, Sopeap jokes about the tumor constricting the artery into her heart, grinningly saying, “my artery feels a bit constricted” as a playful greeting. Although such humor is admittedly dark, by joking about her cancer Sopeap is able to recognize it and move on with the tasks of the day, rather than living in denial or being crushed by the knowledge that her days are numbered, again demonstrating the usefulness of humor in coping with physical danger and even looming death.

Lucky Fat, a young orphan abandoned by his parents, also uses humor to cope with the stresses of surviving alone amidst the dump’s difficulties and dangers. When the other villagers name him “Lucky Fat” because of his weight and comment that he looks like Buddha, Lucky Fat humorously leans into it rather than being hurt or offended. He goes so far as to collect Buddha figurines from the trash and fill his hut with them. In spite of being an orphan and living in destitute poverty, Lucky Fat’s good humor makes him resilient, living his life “with more animation than any human being living in a dump should be able to display.” More than simple resilience, Lucky Fat’s good humor earns him the other villagers’ goodwill and admiration, which itself helps him to survive amidst hardship. When gang members beat up Lucky Fat, the other villagers are so enraged that their beloved joker was hurt that they come to his aid and chase down the attackers. Lucky Fat’s humor both helps him cope and earns him the goodwill of others, demonstrating that humor not only helps one to endure hardship, but also can help to form beneficial relationships with others.

As Sopeap teaches Sang Ly, not only can humor provide relief from hardship or stress, it can also be a tool with which to challenge social inequities. While Sopeap is teaching Sang Ly about common character roles used in literature, she describes the role of the “trickster,” a joker who not only “provide[s] relief with their wit, but their often impish actions point out the absurd, things that need to change,” suggesting that humor can serve the additional purpose of highlighting social inequities in a non-aggressive way. Lucky Fat models this function of humor when he points out the injustice of the fact that the scrap buyer—who buys the sorted trash gathered by the villagers—pays women and children less than he pays men, even when they deliver the same quantity of scrap. Rather than aggressively criticize the buyer, which would infuriate him, Lucky Fat simply “joked about how ridiculous it is […] right in front of the buyer’s face.” Although the buyer is irritated, he is also so embarrassed that he pays Sang Ly the same fair price as he pays to the men, demonstrating humor’s use as a tool for gently challenging unjust social conventions and practices. Although the villagers’ lives in Stung Meanchey seem difficult and dreary, humor proves invaluable to their perseverance and optimism, demonstrating what a powerful asset it can be.