Summary
On Christmas Eve Hà’s family receives a letter from Hà’s father’s brother. He knows nothing more about where Hà’s father might be. His letter doesn’t tell Hà’s family what to do from now on, and Hà’s mother doesn’t know either. It is a silent Christmas Eve. On gift-exchange day, Pam gives Hà a new doll. Hà is thankful, but embarrassed not to have a gift for Pam.
Hà’s brothers entertain hypothetical scenarios about what might have happened to their father: is he building an army, living with a new family in France, living in a monastery? Hà asks what if he is really gone. From the sad looks on their faces she knows they have begun to accept her suggestion. Hà’s mother says nothing about Hà’s father, but chants every night, waiting for a sign.
Hà wears her new coat and a hand-me-down dress to school on the first day back. When Hà takes off her coat, a girl tells Hà that flannel is only for nightgowns and sheets, pointing out a blue flower stitched onto Hà’s chest, saying they only put them on nightgowns. Hà rips it off—nightgown no more. She wears the dress to sleep and tells her mother what happened, saying she pretended not to care, so no one else cared, and so she really didn’t care. Her mother laughs and gives her a tin of sunflower seeds Hà had gathered with TiTi, which Hà can give to Pam.
In mid-January Hà’s mother loses her amethyst stone. Quang drives them to the sewing factory and retraces her steps. At dusk, the guards shoo them out, and they are afraid to look at their mother. At home, she retreats to her room and misses dinner. At bedtime they hear a gong: she appears finally and says their father is truly gone. The family puts on formal clothes and faces the altar. They chant for his safe passage toward eternal peace, where his parents await him. Hà’s mother says he won’t leave if they hold on to him. At least now they no longer live in waiting.
Hà tries to tell Mrs. Washington about the ceremony, but struggles with the language. She encourages Hà to make mistakes, saying the more she practices the more she’ll learn. Hà says her father is at peace, and she’d like to plant flowers from Vietnam in her backyard. Tết is coming, and luck starts over every new year.
Quang starts night school to restudy engineering. Vū Lee will go to cooking school in San Francisco, where his idol Bruce Lee once walked. Khôi wants to be an animal doctor. Hà’s mother says she always wanted an engineer, a doctor, a poet, and a lawyer; she says Hà loves to argue, right? Hà says no she doesn’t, then vows to become more agreeable.
The book ends on January 31, which is Tết, the lunar new year. It is 1976, Year of the Dragon. This year there is no I Ching Teller of Fate, so Hà’s mother predicts that their lives will twist and twist, intermingling the old and new until it doesn’t matter which is which. She makes her own version of banh chung, with pork, rice and black beans wrapped in cloth rather than banana leaves. It is not the same, but not bad.
They perform the same rituals of smiling, wearing new clothes, and not sweeping, splashing water, talking back, or pouting. Hà’s mother ask Quang to bless the house right after midnight, so Hà can’t beat him to it by getting up before dawn. Her mother sets up an altar on the highest bookshelf: the same forever-young portrait of Hà’s father. They each hold an incense stick and wait for the gong, and Hà prays for Father to find warmth in his new home, and for their family members to be happy and thrive. Hà opens her eyes and sees the others are still praying. She wonders what they could be praying for, then closes her eyes again and hopes she learns this year to fly-kick—not to kick anyone so much as to fly.
Analysis
The theme of generosity continues with the gifts Hà receives for Christmas. But due to unfamiliarity with the custom, and a lack of money, she does not have anything to give her friend Pam. Hà’s naivety arises again as her brothers entertain fantasy scenarios in which their father might be alive. In her innocence, Hà doesn’t realize that her off-hand comment that he is really gone is how her brothers truly feel; she does not realize that her brothers were likely speaking of hypothetical scenarios in order to keep Hà’s spirits up.
The sign Hà’s mother had been waiting for arrives when she loses her treasured amethyst ring. With no definite way of knowing whether her husband is dead, Hà’s mother believes that she must finally move on when the stone goes missing. After more than nine years of waiting, she believes it is time to put the matter to rest and that the family must let go of hope to allow him safe passage to the eternal peace of the afterlife.
The theme of adaptation arises when Mrs. Washington encourages Hà to make mistakes as a means of learning. Though Hà would like to deliver her words about her father’s death, Mrs. Washington believes it is necessary to fail in order to not make the same mistakes again.
Having let go of their hopes of their father’s return, Hà and her brothers focus on the future, and what they would like to become. Hà’s mother jokes that she had always wanted her children to have a certain set of careers—an engineer, a doctor, a poet, and a lawyer. She implies that Hà’s argumentativeness would make her a good lawyer. The mother’s statement is ironic, as the reader knows that Hà will grow up to be the poet and write this novel in verse.
The end of the narrative comes full circle by ending where it began—on the lunar new year. However much the family’s lives have twisted inside out, they have come back again, and returned to a place of stability. As they adapt to life in America, their lives will continue to twist while incorporating new elements and challenges; gradually integrating the new into the old, the unfamiliar into the familiar. The novel ends with the image of Hà’s family members continuing to pray after she has opened her eyes. She does not know what they are praying for, but as she just prayed for their prosperity, it is implied that they are praying for hers.
