Cairo House themes in comparison to The Bridegroom

After reading through Cairo House and reflecting on it, I think that I enjoyed it, and I was able to notice some similar themes that appeared in both Cairo House and The Bridegroom. With one of the big themes of Cairo house being a tribute to the changing of the times and the reflection on differences between a past and present life, it is easy to spot this theme in both stories. In my opinion the several Ha Jin stories that focused on similar themes to this were always some of my favorites. In Women from New York and Official Reply I think that this theme is very prevalent. In both short stories there is a focus on a main character trying to deal with a change in culture, either in their own culture or different cultures. The biggest parallel I think are the themes in a Woman from New York and Cairo House, yet an Official Reply still shares some of the broader themes. However, there are also key differences in the two books. Obviously, Cairo House is able to focus more on specific people and how they have changed along with the culture, which isn’t done as much in Ha Jin’s stories which focus more on the overall culture. Overall, I enjoyed Ha Jin’s short stories more than Cairo House, but it was still very interesting to be able to compare the themes from the two authors and see the similarities between them despite being from completely different cultures.