![]() ![]() When she inevitably returns, her father is in trouble after digging a trench in the yard of one of his lawn-mowing clients. Not only are the parents on the brink of complete breakdown, the daughter too is driven to great ends, and in Chapter 4, she runs away from home and makes her way to the East Coast, as far as she can get from San Diego. The family is evicted, causing them to move again, and in the process, they lose family pictures in the demolition of their old house. When the neighbor children crowd around to see what the fuss is about, the narrator offers a dance to them instead. Ba is not handling these transitions well, and Ma has become naggy and unbearable because of his constant gambling and binge drinking. When Ma married Ba, he was a Buddhist thug.Īs an immigrant, the first major move to America is followed by small moves, from one apartment, a red one, to a green one, and then another move because the landlord murders a woman. After discussing one such picture of her grandparents, we learn that the titular "Gangster," is actually Ba. She likes him.Īn important motif in the plot is the introduction of three separate pictures of family members in Vietnam, and the surreal experiences and emotions they give to the narrator. ![]() In a play fort, the narrator meets a young boy who touches her breasts. The narrator shows that her parents fight often, and they fight on the day the pool is ruined. One time, her mother crashes their family car into the apartment complex's front gate, and the boys in the complex often jump from the second floor into the pool, and eventually, the landlord decides to drain the pool, dumping in cement and rocks. They live in an apartment complex with palm trees and a pool, and her mother works as a seamstress. In the following days, the narrator's mother arrives to the family in San Diego. Then one day, she "frees" the butterfly by throwing the glass paperweight into the rest of the miniatures, destroying the entire collection. She is especially fond of a glass paperweight with a butterfly trapped in the glass, pretending the butterfly is actually alive and waiting to escape its prison. Melvin inherits glass miniatures from his father, and he warns the immigrants not to touch them, but the narrator plays with them in secret. This includes ' Ba,' (like 'Pa'), the narrator's father. He leaves his son to care for the immigrants, but our narrator's family works for the son, Melvin, paining houses as compensation for their stay. Russel, a retired Navy officer, sponsors their voyage but dies before the trip is made. In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, a nameless first-person narrator recounts the life of a refugee living in Southern California after fleeing a Vietnamese re-education camp in Singapore. Written by Bruh Moment and other people who wish to remain anonymous We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. ![]()
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