“The relatives treated me rudely, beating me and calling me names, and so on my eighteenth birthday my father buried his head in his hands and cried until the bottle was empty and his tears were spent and he was at last decided. It was time to let me go. Grubs like us didn’t get many chances, and he’d promised Mother before she died that he’d send me, their son and only child, away from his unhappy life and into a brighter world.”
Shelley's father intends to send Shelley to San Francisco, where his odds of finding success and happiness are high. Although his hometown, Gejiu, is stunning, it does not offer much hope to Shelley. There are no impressive career prospects in the town because most people end up working at tin factories there. Departing from China is a long-term dream that comes to fruition once Shelley turns eighteen. Shelley’s father envisions that he will experience social mobility through hard work. Although Shelley’s mother is deceased, Shelley's father feels he is indebted to her, so he must give their son improved opportunities. America espouses a brightness that would illuminate Shelley’s dull life.
"Father and I were lodged on the lowest rung of the family ladder, and nothing we could do would lift us from the mud. I thank my many cousins for teaching me that lesson, for it was their whirling wallops upside my youthful head and their painful pinches along my bony arms that resolved me with every blueing to move far away, earn a lot of money, and stride the earth as a man."
Shelley is not contented with the social position his family ascribes to him and his father. No one respects him and his father because they rant lowly. Furthermore, his cousin's abuse makes him realize that he deserves a more worthwhile existence. Shelley's determination to become a renowned poet inspires him to rise above the unpleasant circumstances that would have broken him. He recognizes that his position is not to be in the mud. He is not resigned to the low position. He wants to rise so that he can be his own man. His spirit is a strength that would help him to survive in America.
“We both knew we were telling each other tales. My mother fondly called them your father’s little stories, not the ancient folktales and legends she knew by heart, but myths-of-the moment that Father conjured strictly for her delight. She would beg him for one when her pain was just so…As long as the tale lasted, my mother starved upright, her breaths light and quiet.”
Shelley's father was a gifted storyteller that could create captivating tales using day-to-day happenings. He would narrate the stories to Shelly and his mother before they died. The stories help Shelley's mother cope with her pain even if they are fictional; thus, they are therapeutical. Shelley's mother enjoyed the soothing stories and would remain attentive while listening to them. They helped her divert her attention from the pain in her body. Moreover, storytelling binds the family together and creates a culture of authentic bonding each night.
