“Erin” is Hong’s pseudonym for her college roommate, a successful Taiwanese American visual artist who remains a close friend to this day. The essay “An Education” focuses on Hong’s relationship with Erin and their mutual friend Helen in college. In this essay, Hong portrays Erin as a brilliant, ambitious student who works hard to overcome the prejudices that Asian women face in the arts—but also struggles to cope with Helen’s anger, jealousy, and instability. Hong praises Erin’s loyalty and support as a friend, which she credits with nourishing her “creative imagination” and encouraging her to take herself seriously as an artist. However, Erin also expresses concern that Hong may violate her and Helen’s privacy by writing about them.
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Erin Character Timeline in Minor Feelings
The timeline below shows where the character Erin appears in Minor Feelings. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
An Education
...of a geek. But she found herself upstaged by an intimidating goth Taiwanese girl named Erin. They struck up a friendship in class and then decided to paint together one night....
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...apparent potential. Women and people of color generally aren’t so lucky. Yet Hong’s relationships with Erin and a woman named Helen ended up giving her a version of this same supportive...
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In college, Hong, Helen, and Erin would sit for hours at an Ohio diner and discuss art. Their friendship was the...
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Erin did minimalist landscape art, which was in part a way to reinterpret her family trauma....
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...installation artist Ann Hamilton. As soon as she finished, Helen attempted suicide. Soon, Hong and Erin became her caretakers; frightened of setting Helen off, Hong retreated into herself. But Helen’s rages...
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A year later, Hong and Erin moved into a dilapidated, old, ant-infested house at Oberlin. Their roommate, another art major, turned...
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One day, Helen went to Hong and Erin’s house after a “heroin bender” and sprawled out on their armchair. Hong remembered her London...
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Hong grew tired of her art class and realized that Erin and Helen were far better than she was, so she switched to poetry. Years later,...
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...to have studied in the 1990s, when multiculturalism was the norm in college curriculums. She, Erin, and Helen fed off one another’s creativity. Hong once staged a poetry reading in a...
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Hong wasn’t planning to write about Helen—just Erin, who stayed her best friend for many years after college. In contrast, Hong and Helen...
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