Apa
Apa is the narrator’s father. He is what is politely known as a sufferer of the disease of the alcoholism. He is what is realistically is known as a drunk:
“Now, Halmoni can only shake her head when Apa comes home late stinking like the insides of the bottles that get left on the street.”
Active Dreaming
Ever have one of those dreams where you are doing something and then, weirdly, you suddenly wake up and parts of your body used in doing that thing feel as though you were really doing it? No? Well, maybe it’s just the narrator who here describes the effect of a recurring dream about trying to touch a cloud.
“The ringing of the phone wakes me from my dream. My arms ache as though I have just fallen from the sky.”
Mi Gook
As a young girl, the narrator is worried about moving to America. It seems like a magical place, but also very strange. The word that the family uses to describe America is “Mi Gook” and it is important to know this otherwise the following simile will make absolutely no sense:
“An ahjimma will curl your hair so you will look just like a real Mi Gook girl.”
Curls
The idea that all it takes to look American is to curl the naturally straight Asian hair does not go exactly according to plan, however. Young Ju looks in the mirror at the results sees not herself, but only metaphor:
“Who is that girl? She cannot be me. Her hair is too big. It stands up big as a bush, just like the hair of the toy man with the rainbow face. Uhmma did not tell me this was curly hair. She said it would look like the sea. But it does not. I am a Mi Gook girl with big ugly toy-man hair.”
Assimilation
Assimilation for immigrants always begins with language. Learning the dominant native language of a country is the key to fully assimilating into the culture. This difficulty is often lost on teachers:
“Her forehead bunches up like crinkled paper and her eyes squeeze shut in the corners. She does not understand the English that sounds perfect in my head and then comes out messy as the can of spaghetti Uhmma lets me eat on Saturdays if I help with the laundry.”
