The study analyzes how Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous connects East and West by using the body as a metaphor for diasporic dislocation, depicting the narrator Little Dog’s journey through the differing experiences of Vietnam and America, which enhances the novel’s examination of identity and existence across cultural divides. Expanding the traditional interpretations of trauma and identity, the examination stresses the existential aspects of Vuong’s work, illustrating how Little Dog’s profound relationship with his physical experience establishes the body as a crucial center of perception and selfhood. Utilizing Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the paper points out how Vuong’s visceral language and fragmented narrative structure surpass verbal constraints, employing embodied communication to connect the lived experience of his present life in America with the enduring, haunting memories of his family’s past in Vietnam.
