Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Latehomecomer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics, Refugee Camps, and Inhumanity
The Immigrant Experience
Death, Spirituality, and Home
Love and Family
Gender
Summary
Analysis
It’s 1975, during the Vietnam War. The Lao People’s Party has just come to power in Laos, and they’ve issued a mandate to kill the Hmong people. The CIA recruited 30,000 Hmong men to fight in the Vietnam War, and most of them are dead. In the remote Hmong villages, mostly women and children remain, and they’re ready for peace. The Hmong know that the Americans have left—they saw the planes disappearing into the sky. Now, the murders have started. They know that death is coming.
Both sides in the Vietnam War—the U.S. and Vietnam—cause nothing but death and persecution for the Hmong. In addition, during this time, the Lao’s People’s Party takes over Laos (the Hmong people’s ancestral homeland) and calls for a genocide of the Hmong. This context introduces the fact that the Hmong are caught in the middle of a political battle that has nothing to do with their community. Yang thus encourages the reader to empathize with the Hmong’s plight.
Themes
In 1975, before Kao Kalia Yang is born, her mother Chue Moua is 16 years old, and her father Bee Yang is 19 years old, but they haven’t met yet. It’s noon, and the communist soldiers are coming. Bee’s brother looks around at his starving family and runs into the jungle, along with many others. The soldiers round up the remaining people and send them to death camps.
This is the beginning of the Hmong genocide, which forces the Hmong to face death or flee into the jungle to live as fugitives. From the start, it’s clear that family is important to the Hmong, and that political unrest separates relatives from one another, which causes them a lot of suffering.
Themes
In 1978, Chue and Bee meet. They’ve been foraging in the forest for a few years, trying to stay alive. Kao imagines them meeting in a romantic, sun-dappled scene. Before the soldiers arrived, Chue dreamed of becoming a nurse; she always felt loved and cared for. Bee’s childhood was tougher: he grew up without a father and spent most of his childhood looking after his siblings while his mother Youa, a shaman, gathered medicinal herbs. He longed for his father. Bee has never been to his father’s grave, high on a mountain. When the soldiers came, he’d looked back at it as he ran into the jungle.
Yang imagines her parents meeting in a romantic setting and falling in love at first sight, the way heroes and heroines do in fiction—but given that they meet in such harrowing circumstances, this is likely an unrealistic fantasy. Bee’s longing for his father reveals that the Hmong have patriarchal values—that is, that the older men in Hmong families occupy a respected position of authority. Furthermore, Bee’s fixation on his father’s grave suggests that the Hmong’s ancestral lands—and relatives’ graves—are deeply significant for their spirituality. As before, Yang emphasizes that the Hmong were forced to flee these sacred places.
Themes
The Hmong fled from China to Laos 200 years ago. Centuries later, when the Americans recruited Hmong boys to die in the war, they didn’t think about how the Hmong would suffer. On the day that Chue and Bee meet in the jungle, Bee notices Chue’s light complexion and long black hair. Chue pretends not to see Bee, though she notices his high cheekbones. Most of Chue’s admirers talk nervously, which annoys her; Bee doesn’t do this. The situation isn’t the lush jungle scene that Kao imagines—Chue and Bee fugitives in a war. Looking back, Chue thinks that she wouldn’t have married Bee if she’d known it would separate her from everybody she loved.
For centuries, the Hmong people were targeted by political events that caused widespread suffering and lasting damage to their communities—the Vietnam War is just one iteration of this. Here, Yang begins unpicking the romanticized notion of her parents’ meeting: she notes that they didn’t know if they liked each other at the beginning, and she highlights how Chue went on to regret her decision to leave her own family for Bee. This perhaps suggests that, for Hmong people, familial bonds are more important than romantic bonds.
Themes
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Shortly after Chue and Bee meet, they hear soldiers. Bee walks away from the gunshots, and Chue doesn’t want to let go of Bee’s hand, so she doesn’t. She’s not thinking beyond that moment, but they wind up getting married. Chue’s family worries about him being able to support Chue. The wedding is a muted ceremony in a jungle clearing; the Hmong feel sad that they can’t have a feast. Chue’s mother gives her a traditional silver necklace and some embroidery—exchanging gifts means that their spirits will find each other after they die.
Soldiers are pursuing the Hmong to commit genocide, which forces them into life as fugitives (and, later, refugees). Meanwhile, Chue isn’t sure if she loves Bee yet, which casts further doubt on Chue’s decision to marry him. Chue’s mother’s wedding gift to her is significant because they believe that it bonds Chue and her mother’s spirits together—even on Chue and Bee’s wedding day, the focus is on familial bonds rather than romantic love. Furthermore, this gesture more generally shows how physical objects connecting people with their relatives are important in Hmong spirituality. Having to flee and leave behind their possessions is doubly stressful, since they have to worry about their losses in life and in the afterlife.
Themes
Within a month, soldiers are closing in on the Hmong. It’s been tense for Chue: she’s lonely, and she hasn’t been getting along with Bee’s family. Chue wants to visit her mother, and Bee reluctantly agrees. Chue is overjoyed when they find her family in a thicket, and Bee waits patiently while they visit with each other. Chue wants to stay the night, but Bee doesn’t think it’s safe. Chue is upset by this, but she doesn’t want to fight in front of her family. Chue’s mother went to fetch water a while ago, but it’s getting dark, so Chue and Bee have to leave. Chue never sees her mother again.
The description of Chue and Bee’s difficult first month of marriage paints a contrasting picture to love stories centered on romantic infatuation. Chue’s longing for her mother reinforces Yang’s idea that familial bonds run much deeper than romantic bonds. And, amid all of this, the Hmong people are collectively experiencing pain, personal and cultural losses, and suffering while evading genocide.
Themes
