Our group focused on Tuyen. She seems to be a character that is bold yet simple. She is illusive, independent and direct. She wants to be a part of her family, yet she feels as though, she doesn’t belong. Tuyen seems to facilitate this story. It is her project that asks the question “What do people long for?” And she is the character that struggles to incorporate all of the possibilities into something concise and understandable. Even though Tuyen seems to be direct, she does not seem directed. Confusion emanates from her and we begin to look for explanations and stability, just as she does. She also seems easily swayed. Tuyen wants to fit in the moment, but moments are constantly changing. Intellectually she seems to embrace change, but emotionally she is still distant and confused. Tuyen, as well as all of the other characters, consist of some very complex structuring. This is something that makes this story very fascinating and alluring.

what Tuyen longs for:

1. Independence: examples of her striving for independence are found, frist, on page 22. On this page she tells the story about how she had to move out of her house by the age of 18. It was not becasue she was asked by her parents to leave, but actually the opposite. She felt that she needed to get away from what she called her "schizophrenic" household. Again, on page 63, Cam, her mother, doesn't want her to take any important documents with her. Tuyen wants her insurance cards and such just in case anything were to happen. Her mother comes back and says, "That is what I am saying. Why are you leaving? Anything can happen."

2. Carla: Tuyen longs for Carla in a sexual kind of way. Carla has went out of her way to explain to Tuyen that she is not interested, and in fact she is straight. on page 17 Brand writes, "Tuyen was devoted, as devoted as she could be to anyone, to Carla." Again on page 26, Tuyen describes her wanting to hold and kiss and caress Carla. Page 50 is the kicker though, when Tuyen actually gets into bed with Carla after nights of partying. Even though Carla has confronted her so many times about not "swaying that way" Tuyen still longs for sexual attention from her.

3. Acceptance of her family/Embrace: All Tuyen hopes for is that her family will someday understand that she did not leave home because of them, she left to help herself. On page 12 you see how critical her family is of her apartment and the area she lives. This continues throughout the novel as well. Page 14 describes the visits from her brother and that her father wont let her mother, Cam, come and visit her. He also wont allow them to bring her money or food. And finally, on page 61, Brand tells us that, "yet she wanted an embrace so tight, and with such a gathering of scents and touches. She wanted sensuality, not duty. She wanted to be downtown in the heat of it."

Tuyen struggles throughout the novel, thus far, with all three of these situations. Hopefully she will someday get what is it that she longs for in life.

I missed class, but I will answer anyway! Ok so basically I definitely feel a lot of connection with Tuyen, especially with her bold sense of independence, almost to the point of stubbornness. I feel that she revolts against her parent’s cultural ways sometimes simply out of pure spite. Though I can relate to Tuyen’s bold behavior (her consistent assertiveness with Carla reminds me of me), I felt a stronger bond with Jackie for some reason. I think her mysteriousness is what struck me as a characteristic of my own, as I found myself trying to pick apart her puzzle pieces. On page 91 it is described that Jackie:

“Despised people who didn’t know what was going to happen to them. Those kinds of people, she thought, lied to themselves and to people around them. She had no pity for that kind of person, and what Oku had been asking for was pity.”

From this quotation and the general vibe I get from the book, Jackie seems to not take much crap from anyone. In this sense, she reminds me of myself. She is very strong-willed, remaining quite dominant in her relationship with Oku. She always seems to have the upper hand, which I admire greatly. Her comments in response to reading her horoscope (we’re both Aries too) remind me of my blunt obnoxious New York side. Whereas I feel that Tuyen, even Carla are easier to read, I find myself constantly asking myself why is Jackie doing this? And I never seem to find an answer. Mysterious, to say the least.

Our group focused on Carla. She appears to be a very complex character, her family history is heartbreaking and the ongoing family feuds and drama with her incarcerated brother leave Carla under a burden of responsibility. We are first introduced to Carla on the subway described as, "Italian, southern. She's bony like a mantis in her yellow slick plastic coat, except her mouth has a voluptuousness to it, and her eyes, the long lashes weigh them down." One of the first things we learn about Carla is her devotion to her troubled younger brother, Jamal. He is always in some sort of trouble and in and out of juvenile detention centers and jails. Carla feels Jamal is her responsibility since her mother has passed away and her father is unsupportive. In one scene, Carla is riding though the city comparing her views from her brother's, she describes, "She saw the city as a set of obstacles to be crossed and circled, avoided and let pass. He saw it as something to get tangled in" (pg. 32). The passage allows us to get a better understanding of Carla's personality and why she seems distant from her friends and surroundings most of the time, she sets up borders around herself to keep guarded, whereas Jamal lacks those borders, he is always entangled in some sort of a mess. Another imortant aspect in the characterization of Carla is the looming absence of her mother, Angie. Throughout the novel Carla's memory of her mother fades and Carla tries to hold onto Angie. In undertaking Jamal as her responsibility, Carla feels like she can salvage the memory of her dead mother. The final thing our group found imporant about Carla was what she told Tuyen she longed for:" Sleep. A deep, dreamless sleep" (Pg. 152). We found this important because it fits into the theme in the novel of the character's only revealing so much about themselves to eachother. Seeing Carla as such a complex character, it would seem she would long for much more from what we as readers discover about her, but she only allows her friends to see a small piece of her.

Carla was also our character of focus.

We looked at the way she viewed the city and felt that it provided the reader with great insight into her personal motivations. Carla’s enjoyment seems to be derived from things that go against the conventional wisdom of the masses and causes disruption to the order of civilization. She describes how sometimes she will skip work on Mondays to feel what it is like to have everyone heading in one direction while her mindset is heading in the opposite. She also points out her love for snowstorms for a similar reason. The blanket of white that covers the city shuts down the orderly process of normal and causes the aimless and directionless nature that is inherent in everyone to be exposed. It is the chaos of the blizzard that causes most to become disheveled but the chaos which Carla finds peaceful.

If you asked her what it is that she longs for she would probably answer with a simplistic response of not having to take care of anyone. But in reality, as Kristen pointed out, she is more complex than she lets on and her true desires would be for her brother to redirect his life and follow a path of decency and relieve some of the weight from her shoulders and allow her to be a 23 year old. After here mother passed away she was burdened with the responsibility of taking care of Jamal and this aspect of her life strains Carla to the point of severe depression that consumes her for weeks on end.

What Jackie Longs For.

Jackie longs for stability and appreciation. She needs to be loved, but needs to be in control in loving relationships.

Her failure to influence her parent’s behaviour impacts on the way she treats the men in her life. Jackie thinks she has to ‘save’ her parents from their hedonistic lifestyle, deteriorating to the seedy Duke of Connaught when the paramount Night Club closes. “She loved the few weeks when there was no Paramount and nothing up to standard for her mother and father to go to. It was like being on holiday. She already had a picture-postcard idea of how her family should be, and it was coming true.”(p182) Unfortunately, “[m]uch as she tried though, Jackie couldn’t keep her mother and father away from the Duke”. (p182)

Jackie is more successful in regulating other relationships; particularly with Oku, who is so infatuated by her. She uses sex as a tool to regulate her feelings towards him. By saying that fucking is all she has to give, (p194) she lets him know that their relationship can not be anything more. “With Rainer, she knew who she was, separate and apart, in command of self. With Oku, she was on that train, liquid and jittery and out of control”, (p101) therefore she has to keep him at arms length to maintain her equilibrium. She appears so cool and detatched to Oku but inside she struggles for stability.

What Quy longs for

Finding himself with nothing save wit and ingenuity, Quy longs for a path to open before him and give inner peace to the thought of abandonment, an occurrence that lead to an uncertain absence. His story is his families ever present nightmare, uncertain until the final pages if his story is a fabrication, an attempted white-lie by his parents consciousness, lacking quotation marks through his narrative.

His desired parallels his perspective on life, progressing with time as he matures to find himself following a ragtag group of thieves and eventually to leave them and make his way towards Canada, surprisingly the same path his family had taken those many years before. His longing begins at the death of the hope of being reunited with his family, routed at first in the most primal of desires, shelter, food, ending in the desire to discard his previous life to start anew being the lost prince of a family one torn. The ending is more a fulfillment of Quy's parents desire, but none the less lead to the fulfillment of both, a family united after many lost years.

What Oku Longs For:
1 - Jackie - On page 48 Oku describes his love for Jackie and confesses that she is the main reason why he affiliates himself with their group of friends.
2 - Life as an artist - On page 47 Tuyen reflects on a passage where Oku had to make a choice between listening to his dad and getting a steady job, or pursuing his passion for art and doing what he loves.
3 - Civil Rights - In this passage on page 50, Oku explains that when black men in society get harrassed by the police and end up going to jail, this is seen as an inevitable right of passage by other black men.