"I can't make my brothers go live elsewhere, but I can hide their sandals."
After discussing how her older brothers tease her, Hà recognizes how she is powerless to get rid of her brothers, but able to exact her revenge by hiding their sandals. This passage attests to the playful dynamic among Hà and her siblings, as well as revealing Hà's cunning.
"Mother smells of lavender and warmth; she’s so beautiful even if her cheeks are too hollow, her mouth too dark with worries."
In this passage, Hà reflects on how her mother emanates beauty. However, Hà can perceive how years of scarcity, along with worry over looming war and her father's absence, has left her thin and troubled-looking. This passage is significant because it shows Hà's perceptiveness, and admiration for her mother.
"I will not risk fleeing with my children on a rickety boat."
"Would a navy ship meet your approval?"
"As if the navy would abandon its country?"
"There won't be a South Vietnam left to abandon."
In this exchange, Uncle Son tries to convince Hà's mother to flee Vietnam. While she foresees the danger of fleeing on a rickety watercraft, Uncle Son surprises her by hinting that the navy is going to convert its ships to refugee ships. The idea violates Hà's mother attachment to her homeland, but it would not count as abandonment to Uncle Son, as by then the country will have fallen to the North and therefore no longer exist. This passage is significant because it shows how news of Saigon's downfall would have traveled by word of mouth among those in the know.
"Until you children master English, you must think, do, wish for nothing else. Not your father, not our old home, not your old friends, not our future."
This passage is significant because it speaks to the novel's thematic concern with adaptation. Hà's mother understands that the linguistic barrier will be the first her children must overcome as refugees. Once they acquire English, they can participate as full members of American society.
"At the port we find out there’s no such thing as a secret among the Vietnamese."
Upon arrival to the port, Hà's family discovers that Uncle Son's suggestion to keep the refugee ships a secret was misguided. Regardless of the secrecy, the port is teeming with people desperate to leave Vietnam.
"Whoever invented English should have learned to spell."
While learning the arcane spelling rules of English, Hà grows frustrated and comments that whoever invented the language should have learned to spell. Hà reveals her wit as she points out how inconsistencies in a language system become entrenched over time as rules.
"Oh, my daughter, at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists."
In this passage, Hà's mother consoles her daughter after she admits to how unbearable the bullying at school has become. Hà asks if she is allowed to hit them and her mother suggests that she has to fight back in non-violent ways. Implicit in her advice is that Hà will learn to fight back in more nuanced ways and thrive despite the bullying and adversity.
"Not the same, but not bad at all."
When Hà throws a small tantrum in response to the dried papaya Mrs. Washington gifts her, her mother insists that she must learn to compromise. She wakes later to find that her mother has soaked the papaya strips. Soaked, they taste closer to the papaya Hà remembers from home. She learns to compromise, figuring that the papaya, while not the same, is not bad at all.
"I can’t think of anything but can’t let my brothers best me, so I blurt out, What if Father is really gone?"
In this passage, Hà is responding to her brothers' hypothetical suggestions about where their father might be. Without realizing it, Hà utters the most likely scenario. In her youthful naivety, she does not understand that her brothers are likely trying to keep hers and their own spirits up by not giving up hope, while in truth they have already made peace with what Hà suggests.
"Your father is truly gone."
In this passage, Hà's mother finally states what she has likely suspected and feared for the nine years her husband has been missing in action. Throughout the novel, she has prayed for his return, but after she loses her the amethyst stone from her ring, she concludes that he must truly be gone. This passage is significant because it shows how Hà's mother gives up her last connection to Vietnam. In giving up hope for her husband's return, Hà's mother and her family can move on with their lives.
