The Latehomecomer

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2008

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-11

Chapters 12-15

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Key Figures

Kao Kalia Yang

Koa Kalia Yang is a first-generation graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University. Having spent the first six years of her life in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp before moving to America, Yang is an advocate for Hmong cultural awareness in America. After moving to America, her family lives in a low-income housing and receives welfare. Because her parents aren’t able to work due to taking English-language and vocational classes, Yang’s family lives in poverty for most of her youth. She is acutely aware of how Americans treat her family differently, and she decides that the Hmong aren’t really at home in America; similarly to the refugee camps, America is just providing safety for the Hmong, but not really welcoming them to be part of the cultural fabric of the country.

Myth and stories are a major influence on Yang’s life. Without a written language, Hmong history has been traditionally passed through storytelling. Yang grew up listening to her grandma’s stories about her past, stories that were often an even mix of the fantastical and the realistic. Due to this, Yang grew up with a magical view of the world, often imagining dragons waiting under water and tiger men hiding in the jungles.

Yang’s coming of age was marked by responsibility. She and her older sister were forced to babysit their many younger siblings at night while their parents worked. At times this duty was meant with resentment, but most often Yang enjoyed watching over her younger siblings. It wasn’t until college, when Yang was alone for the first time in her life, that she was able to fully explore the world around her.

Key to understanding Yang’s journey is the division between past and present lives. Although Yang spends most of her life in America, her experience in Thailand’s refugee camps isan integral part of her identity. In addition, she is very close to her grandma, who, unlike her parents, refuses to assimilate to American culture. Through her grandma’s stories, Yang understands that for the Hmong living in America, living in the present is a perpetual act of looking back.

Mr. and Mrs. Yang

Koa Kalia Yang’s parents were born in Laos but forced to flee for their lives after the Vietnam War ended. They sought refuge across the Mekong River in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, where they ended up raising their two daughters. Realizing that they can never return to Laos, and that they aren’t wanted in Thailand, they accept the UN’s offer to resettle in America. They are hopeful that America will give their children a chance at a better life than they had, and they take classes and work night shifts to ensure that their dream for their children comes true.

Mr. Yang is an informal poet who constantly tells his children stories to instill in them good values and morals, while Mrs. Yang is more soft-spoken. However, they are both hard-working and value family above all else.

Dawb

Dawb is Kao Kalia Yang’s older sister. She contracts polio as a child and walks with a limp, but she doesn’t let this slow her down. Not only does she try to keep up with her peers physically, she excels at each school she attends. Once she reaches America, she quickly learns to speak English without an accent, and even wins fifty dollars at her school spelling bee. She is fiercely protective of Yang, and they grow up as best friends who share a similar history.

Grandma Yang

Yang’s grandma was born in Laos, orphaned at a young age, and forced to take care of her younger siblings. After living with her cousin for a brief time, she is married off to a man thirty years older than her. They have nine children together, although one of their daughters dies in infancy. While Yang’s father is only a toddler, Grandma Yang’s husband dies, leaving her to raise the children on her own. In order to feed her children, she makes money as a shaman, concocting herbal tonics to heal people of ailments. Grandma Yang survives the Vietnam War, the refugee camps of Thailand, and resettles with her family in America, although she never learns to speak English.

She is a brave woman who is fiercely protective of her family. At times stubborn, she will do anything to keep her family together. This can be seen by the fact that she was adamant about not leaving the refugee camps in Thailand, but once her sons left she followed them to America in order to keep the family together.