Mother to Tam, Anh’s father, and nine other children—including Uncles One, Two, Three, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine. She raises her ten children in extreme poverty in Vietnam, having to rely on the low wages of her husband, who served in the army during the Vietnam War. She joins Tam and some of her other sons in Australia, where she takes up gardening. She also impresses Anh with her Nintendo skills.
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Anh’s grandmother Character Timeline in The Happiest Refugee
The timeline below shows where the character Anh’s grandmother appears in The Happiest Refugee. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...in extreme poverty with his large family. In spite of her poverty, his mother (Anh’s grandmother), who lost four children, adopted two more to raise along with her eight surviving children....
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Chapter 3
...soon replaced by Uncle Three, an uncle who arrives from America, as well as Anh’s grandmother (his father’s mother), and Anh’s father’s younger sister, who arrive from Vietnam. Other people from...
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Chapter 5
Anh’s grandmother—Tam’s mother—is a big part of Anh’s childhood. Not only is she a passionate gardener, but...
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Chapter 10
...Tam was devastated, and felt terrible guilt, especially when returning his brother’s body to Anh’s grandmother.
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Chapter 11
...that Uncle Six, who is adopted, had turned his back on the family—even ignoring his grandmother on the street.
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...for his memoir, however, Anh delves deeper into Uncle Six’s story. He discovers from his grandmother that Uncle Six was in fact not an adopted child—he was the love child of...
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