Thanksgiving in Mongolia by Ariel Levy

Analysis of “Thanks Giving in Mongolia” by Ariel Levy
The writer opens up the short story by reminiscing over the other trips and journeys she had made in other parts of the world. The bliss of the adventures while she wrote notes and the details of the journeys were her central points. She comes out as one who loves to celebrate and appreciate any little thing she had. She then goes on to focus on the main point of the story which was her trip in Mongolia during thanks giving. It started well, good arrival and reception, happy commencement of her coverage of the story on mining and the economy of Mongolia. However, things changes and she started developing discomforts. These discomforts from her pregnant condition ended up occasioning her miscarriage of the baby. She did not want to believe that the fetus would not survive and held onto the fetus, unfortunately at nineteen weeks the fetus could not survive. Their stay together was short but she enjoyed it and was memorable to the present time that she was writing the experience, it came out as the happiest and saddest moment she ever had in Mongolia.
There are various issues and opinions that the author wanted to put across. She never recounted the expensive luxurious places she has ever visited in developed nations, but just the various trips and safaris to the remote poverty stricken parts of third world nations. In such she felt satisfied and enriched enough by just having the livelihoods of the people therein scripted in her stories. The author teaches the reader that there can be comfort and joy found in any situation that one can be going through. From the simple games that they played as children, to the third world slums and wild that she toured and the Mongolia experience that led to her miscarriage, the narrator still finds something in all these to smile about. The author also takes a swipe at owning up to the choices we make and the consequences of the choices we make. Though the doctors in Mongolia did not want to associate the miscarriage with the travel, she knows and believes it was the travelling at that stage of pregnancy, even after the symptoms had shown before the journey was the sole reason for the miscarriage. She encourages the reader to have the full confidence and courage to take responsibility of their actions.
The story further tells the effect of family and motherhood in particular. The lady went through a lot of experiences in other countries and even in Mongolia with the different weather, culture, livelihood and so on but what kept resurfacing in her talk was the baby that she had, even though it was premature. She even had the picture of the baby in her phone, she kept talking about the baby and even showed people the picture. It is one event that made her proud and forget the pain she went through, she says in the closing paragraph that ‘the truth is, the ten or twenty minutes I was somebody’s mother’.
This reflection and the story in general has had a profound impact on my life since as a mother of three I can closely relate to what the urge to have a child is and also the pain of carrying a pregnancy only to lose it, but also the joy of being a mother. It has shaken me tom reality of how lucky I am since I have the chance to be holding my children in y arms. The emotional attachment that the writer talks about in the story is a situation I can relate to and this makes the story more personal and applicable to me. The story has also taught me to appreciate every little joy that the world may bring me as this lady did. Even amids the roughest time of her life, even in losing the pregnancy, she chose to see and treasure the good short moment and cherish it for the rest of her life.