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 January 2003, and Kao is in her last semester at college. Youa falls ill, but Kao’s family tells her to focus on school. They promise to come and get her next weekend to see Youa. When Kao arrives, she Youa is lying in bed, sweating and struggling to breathe. Kao leans in close and tells Youa that she loves her; she begs Youa not to leave her over and over again. Eventually, Youa puts her hand up to Kao’s head and tells Kao not to cry.
Yang builds up to Youa’s death, which is the climax of the story. In doing so, she continues to emphasize how important Youa is to Kao. Their relationship speaks to the idea familial love is far deeper and more substantive than romantic love, which seems relatively unimportant to Kao.
Themes
Over the following weeks, the house is full of family members who gather around Youa. The doctors say that there’s nothing they can do—Youa’s body is old. The family tries to give her medicine, but they know it won’t help. On February 13, Youa’s body temperature drops. She goes to the hospital in an ambulance, and surprisingly, she responds to the medicine. Kao and Dawb take flowers to Youa at the hospital. The doctors suggest that Youa go home to enjoy her final days with her family which upsets Bee—he thinks that the doctors can do more, but Kao knows they can’t.
Familial bonds are central to Hmong culture, as evidenced by how the entire extended family rallies around Youa. When she falls ill, her health becomes her loved ones’ central concern. This also suggests that Youa is a very important family member—despite being a woman, she’s is the true head of the family.
Themes
Dawb searches for live chickens to heal Youa’s spirit. Youa loves birthdays, so Dawb also gets a cake, and the family decides to celebrate Youa’s birthday early. They load up the cake with candles and crowd around her. Youa tells the family to always remember who they are and where they came from. Kao talks to Youa all night, trying to keep her awake. Youa is soothed by Kao’s voice, and she eventually falls asleep. The next morning, Youa is unconscious. Kao comforts herself with the thought that the whole family is together under one roof, just as Youa always wished.
As Youa’s condition worsens, the family puts their lives on hold to care for her, further illustrating how important and powerful family bonds are to the Hmong people. Even when Youa is unconscious, Kao fixates on her wishes, showing that she loves Youa dearly. Youa’s wishes about her family being together under one roof also stress the central importance of family bonds in Hmong culture.
Themes
That afternoon, Bee tells Kao that she must return to school—but Kao refuses, and Bee gets angry. He asks Kao not to make this decision harder for him, and with tears in his eyes, he yells at one of the cousins to drive Kao back to college. Kao tells Youa that they’ll meet again. Over the next three days, Kao calls every day, but Youa is still unconscious. On the fourth day, Kao’s cousin calls to see how Kao is doing. Kao asks about Youa, and her cousin is silent. Kao knows. She has no words—there’s only silence inside her.
Kao’s desperate longing to remain by Youa’s side shows how important this relationship is in her life—it overrides everything else she cares about, including school. The intense, lengthy, and vivid focus on Youa’s illness and death emphasizes that Kao’s love for Youa is stronger than any other form of love she’s experienced in her life.
Themes
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Youa dies on February 18, 2003 in an uncomfortable metal bed in a shabby house with thin walls that block out the light, far away from her homeland. She loved the bamboo houses in Thailand and Laos because they let the light filter through. Nobody knows exactly when Youa was born, though they estimate that she lived to be over 100 years old. Kao knows that Youa is on her long journey back to the mountains of her youth.
Yang’s descriptions of the house remind the reader of the family’s poverty, which adds to their stress in this difficult time. Because Youa dies far from her homeland, the family believes that her spirit’s post-death journey to unite with her ancestors’ spirits in Laos will be arduous, which also adds to their grief.
Themes
