“Someone says a good story might help you remember, but someone else says that everyone remembers differently. Everyone's got a version of the same story, or maybe there's no such thing as the same story; it's a different story every time.”
The statement is significant to the novel as it encompasses the whole idea of the collection of stories that tell a unified tale. The stories are interweaved around the same historical moment, the International Hotel eviction and demolition during the 1960s and 70s. It entails the stories of the San Francisco Civil Rights by Asian Americans who either migrated into the U.S or were second-generation families. The novel is told in a diverse manner that captures the essence of the people and their true emotions interlinked with the same experiences. Thus, the assertion expresses how the same story or experience can be told from multiple perspectives that give it depth and meaning.
“Come to America, and your children all come out hyphenated. Half this-half that. Nothing whole. Everything half-assed. And it's more complicated than that. One half trying to be the other half and vice versa.”
The narratives on the Asian-American experience have to delve into the identity crises and understanding of one’s ethnic identity that comes with immigration. In the statement, Pa is frustrated by the loss of heritage and identity that he observes in his children who have been born in America. Thus highlighting the major problems that face second-generation children born away from their parent’s country of origin. As much as the parents feel their children are oscillating between their ethnic identity and assimilation, the children also do not have much control over it. Therefore they morph into a blend of both cultures which fosters identity crises for them as they feel they do not fit anywhere. Thus, the narrative focuses on this Asian-American experience that is also faced by other ethnic groups that migrate into a foreign nation.
“By the time we got the red alert to place our bodies in a human barricade around an old hotel that held seventy years of our city's hotel history, we were already the displaced people in the city's plan to impose a particular meaning of home and a particular meaning of nation.”
The spirit of the novel is the camaraderie that emerged against a common threat during the San Francisco Civil Rights. The eviction of Asian-Americans from the International Hotel brought unity among people from different Asian ethnic backgrounds. The frustration from the oppression and silencing of Asian-Americans motivated the Yellow power movement in the region. The capitalist endeavors and the meaning of ‘nation’ imposed policies to demolition such structures; however, it came at a heavy price of homelessness for many. This reinvigorated the common spirit to find a voice against the oppressive system that would resonate in the future.
