The role reversal can also be seen in more subtle details and subtextual clues in the novel, however. Much of Mai's narration of events in Vietnam takes place almost through her own mother's perspective, but as told by Mai, such as, "Baba Quan had told my mother once," and "she and my mother had lived" (6). From the very outset of the story, it is made clear that Mai is now responsible for speaking her mother's voice and telling her mother's story. In practical and symbolic ways, the younger immigrant generation is now in charge of Vietnam's history.
The End
Given the level of significance and intrigue that are attached to the story of Thanh's escape and her abandonment of her supposed father Baba Quan in Vietnam throughout the novel, both by Thanh and by Mai, it is definitely with great satisfaction and anticipation that the reader finally encounters the explanation of what actually occurs. While learning that Baba Quan is not actually Thanh's real father, and that in fact she had seen this man -- the only man she had ever known as her father -- murder the man that she learns truly was her father, is not precisely what most readers were likely expecting, the prolonged nature of the set-up to this revelation (i.e. The entire novel) and the rather rushed manner in which this ongoing mystery is eventually resolved actually serves to make this plot revelation far less startling than it might otherwise have been. Though the reader did not know exactly what shocking revelation would come, it was fairly certain that it would be a major blow that forced a reexamination of the entire novel, and this is exactly what the author managed to provide.
Mai's reaction to this revelation, which comes as a far more personal and directly impactful surprise to her than it does to the reader, is largely positive, as it represents a liberation of sorts from the last elements of the past and her own sense of guilt the she...
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