Fae Myenne Ng Bone Summary

The Chinese-American struggles is the most prominent theme within Fae Myenne Ng’s book, Bone. Fae displays her personal experience through a first person point of view of growing up in the United States from a very young age in the book. She takes the reader with her throughout her journey — starting from the very beginning. The main character within the book is a little girl named Leila, the protagonist, in which the story is surrounded in Chinatown, San Francisco. Growing up in this setting made it difficult for her to have a normal childhood. Fae Myenne Ng uses her debut book, Bone, to assert her ideas on the conflicts within the Chinese American community and her road to peace by focusing on her introduction into the United States, lack

It opens with her views on the United States after a year living there. Leila, the main character, says that life was very different than she had previously imagined. Leila claims that all the Americans judged her every second they got and made it hard for to express who she was comfortably. For example, “Outsiders [the antagonists] jerked their chins, looked at us, shook their heads. We heard things.” (page 5) Leila said this to the reader when she was explaining some of the complications she faced in her new home country. It made feel sympathy for them because they were constantly put on a stage to be judged by people that didn’t know what is was like to be in their shoes. The imagery in this allowed me to not only see what would happen but to understand and relate to them. Also, the short sentence gives a type of effect on pathos. In a way it is like she is saying it in a sorrowful way. This is significant to the book because it allows the reader to better understand that they struggled with judgmental people with a glimpse of what they use to do. This became such a normal occurrence in her life that she knew that all her actions would be severely judged by the people of the United States. In fact, Leila says, “Here’s another Bone for the gossipmongers.”(page 7) This makes me believe that she knows what she is doing is going to rise discussion within the outsiders. However, she

Mah, her mother, sacrificed so much in her life to provide a clean slate for her daughters. Leila knew this. She is aware that her mom did her very best for her daughters at the sacrifice of her own life. For instance, “... my guilt about having a better life than Mah ate me up inside everyday,” said Leila (page 12). She said this after her mother talked to her about all of the opportunities that waited for the two sisters. I feel her pain about having a better life than her mom because the reason she has a good life is because of her mother. Because her mom came to this country for a better life for them justifies her sadness for her mother. Analyzing the sentence, she says that she is guilty about her life being better than her mom. This makes it apparent that Mah has sacrificed a lot to make her children’s life something better than what she had. This is important to the book because it compares their two lives and gives background on Mah’s life. It allows the reader to know a bit more about what role Mah does in Leila’s big story. Furthermore, the guilt that she is carrying insider her has stopped their relationship from evolving or growing into something deeper. For example, Leila and Nina say, “She’d have to face her bitterness about her own marriages, and that’s what i wanted to protect her from” (page 13). They say this because Nina was