How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Who is that girl? She cannot be me. Her hair is too big. It stands up big as a bush, just like the hair of the toy man with the rainbow face. Uhmma did not tell me this was curly hair. She said it would look like the sea. But it does not. I am a Mi Gook girl with big ugly toy-man hair. (5.58)
Young Ju isn't even in America yet and already she's confronted with what America is all about: a total change in her appearance. Not that America has to be about changing what she looks like, but Young Ju doesn't know that just yet—all she knows is that she doesn't look like herself, and not in a good way. Think of this moment as a foreshadowing of how foreign she'll end up feeling once she gets to America.
Quote #2
In the big room, Apa is sitting next to Sahmchun, who is a Mi Gook person with big round money eyes like in the picture of God. Only his money eyes are not dark as night. They are daytime, sun-is-shining, sky-color eyes. His hair is wavy brown seaweed. He says to call him Uhing Kel Thim. That is Mi Gook talk for Sahmchun, but my mouth does not want to make those words. He says it is fine to call him Sahmchun until my mouth is ready to learn. (7.6)
If you haven't figured it out already, Sahmchun is Korean for uncle and Uhing Kel Thim is actually Young Ju trying to pronounce Uncle Tim with her broken English. Uncle Tim seems like a pretty cool guy. After all, he's totally accepting of Young Ju's inability to say his name… although… would it really be so bad if Young Ju spoke broken English or called her uncle Sahmchun and not Uncle Tim?
Quote #3
The lady with the cloud hair is my teacher? But she is a giant person like in the long-ago stories Halmoni used to tell me so I would be a good girl. My teacher looks like the old witch who ate bad children for dinner. (8.5)
Just imagine: you're a new kid in a new country at a new school and right in front of you is a teacher of a totally different race, speaking a completely different language. How else might you understand your new situation? For Young Ju, her closest reference just happens to be a story that seems to feature a big, witchy, white woman as a villainess. Hey, it's not just Western stories that feature stereotypes of other races.