Intolerance
The theme of tolerance is regularly discussed in mass media, for incidents of racial, political, religious and whatnot intolerance happen on a daily basis. Kimberley knows this better than anybody else. For instance, she has to put up with Mr. Bogart’s jokes about the fairer sex. Her teacher doesn’t want or simply can’t admit that a girl could as good at math as a boy. Instead of praising and encouraging her, he gives her lower marks. Not to mention that no one, except Annette, seems to understand that Kimberley might not know things others learn in childhood. The longer Kimberley lives in New York, the better she understands that to be a minority means to have less rights. Although her presence in the country is legal, her mother and she are afraid that they could be deported. Their life is a difficult one, but it is still better than lives of illegal immigrants, who exist in the world without laws and rights, unnoticed by the rest of the society. It is important to understand that they are still people, that they might need help, that might be afraid to ask for it.
Friendship, loyalty and a family
They often say that out friends are as important as a family and it is impossible to disagree. Annette sticks with Kimberley and stay by her side no matter what. She doesn’t pay attention to a fact that Kimberley is dressed poorly, that she doesn’t invite her to her place, that she rarely spends time with her outside classes. In her turn, Kimberley puts up with a feisty character of Annette. She doesn’t end their friendship when Annette starts calling herself a Communist, even remembering that it was the Communists who killed her grandparents. She dutifully signs up every petition Annette wants her to sign, though she doesn’t always understand what they are about. It is Annette’s mother who finds a cheap, but neat and cozy flat in Queens for Kimberley and her mother, helping them to get out of slums of Brooklyn. These girls prove that friends can be more supportive than relatives. Aunt Paula does help to pay Mrs. Chang’s hospital bills and pays for their tickets to America, but she does it only to make them work for her for years. In spite of the fact that she can help her sister, she doesn’t do it, preferring to nurse an old grudge.
Love
Kimberley and Matt’s love theme does have a happy ending, but not a traditional one. Although they are in love, they break up. Why would they do that? What wouldn’t they try to compromise? The answer is simple. Sometimes people are too different to be together, no matter how hard they try, no matter how much they long to build a family together, it is not going to work. Kimberley knows that she would never be happy in Chinatown, which happens to be Matt’s happy place. He would not want Kimberley to be a breadwinner in the family, but she wouldn’t be satisfied with a life in a tiny flat and work, which wouldn’t challenge her. Not to mention that she doesn’t want her mother to live in poverty till her death. They go separate ways, but their story is a happy one, because they manage to part without bitter feelings, for they muster up enough courage to say proper goodbyes to each other and it doesn’t play any role that they do it after 12 years from their break up. What is more important, Kimberley has a son, a copy of Matt. She can’t be with his father, but she is grateful for such a magnificent gift as their son. To know what it means to be in love is enough for a happy ending.
