How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I look at Harabugi's picture on the table with the candles all around. He has sleepy eyes like cats in the sun. They are nice eyes. My Harabugi. Apa has the same eyes. Also the same black hair sticking up straight in the front and flat in the back. (3.12)
If Apa's violent character is any indication of what those "nice eyes" can be like, we're thinking Young Ju's grandfather (Harabugi) might not have been all that nice when he was alive. All that similarity between father and son isn't necessarily a good thing.
Quote #2
I pat my dress and wish this dress were Halmoni. Thinking about Halmoni all alone in our sitting-hen house makes me want to cry louder than Ju Mi's baby sister who has no hair.
Mi Gook is only for young people to have a new start, Halmoni said. Not for old people who are used-up dry fish bones.
I do not understand why Mi Gook is only for Apa and Uhmma and me. God said everyone could go to heaven. Maybe God is a big liar. If Halmoni cannot go to Mi Gook, then I do not want to go. I want to stay at home with Halmoni. (6.4-6)
America—or Mi Gook—is more than just a new place for Young Ju. It's a symbol of the dramatic split from a family life that includes her grandmother Halmoni. Even though she's not even in America yet, Young Ju's getting a crash course in the American nuclear family, a.k.a. a family that's only about the father, mother, and the kids.
Quote #3
Apa lights his cigarette. Blows out the smoke. He shakes his head. You know what it is like. How can you stand to live like that? Always thanking them, always having to be careful. We have no privacy. (9.4)
When Apa says "them," he's referring to his sister and her white American husband, two people he really doesn't want to live with anymore. Why? Even though they're family, Apa feels like a perpetual guest, "always thanking them, always having to be careful," in their house. Clearly family doesn't necessarily mean comfortable or close or even friendly for Apa.