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
Youa’s funeral is at Metro Funeral Home; her body is dressed in traditional Hmong funeral wear. Kao is scared when she sees the body—it doesn’t look like Youa anymore. There hasn’t been a formal funeral in the family for a long time: the community couldn’t have proper funerals in the jungle or the camps. Kao’s family killed nine cows and 300 chickens, which will feed the whole community. Food is a big part of Hmong funerals, and the women work hard to prepare many special meals to feed the community over several days of rituals.
Funerals are clearly very important in Hmong culture, which explains why not being able to bury their dead properly during the war and in refugee camps caused them so much emotional suffering. The extravagance surrounding Youa’s funeral also shows that despite valuing men more highly than women, the community respected Youa and thought of her as a central pillar of their community.
Themes
Kao bows her head while holding incense, to honor Youa. Bee and his brothers have asked an old Hmong man (who knows the traditions) to be the funeral guide. There’s a drum with a dead chicken tied to it. Before she died, Youa said it was important to for her family to know the places she’d been in her life—now, Kao understands why. The guide places Youa’s Alien card into her hand (she never did pass the citizenship test) and he gives her spirit detailed instructions to visit all the places she’s lived, based on what the family told him.
The funeral guide’s actions more fully illustrate the Hmong’s spiritual beliefs. In placing Youa’s documents beside her body and explaining that Youa’s spirit will need them in the afterlife, the guide shows that the Hmong believe personal possessions are important spiritual objects. Being parted from personal possessions (as many war victims and refugees were) thus causes the Hmong extra angst and worry, because they believe that such losses will make their afterlives more difficult.
Themes
The guide tells Youa to make her way to California, the camps in Thailand, and then the Mekong River. Knowing that Youa can’t swim, the guide gives her directions to a bridge that will lead her across the river into Laos. The guide assures Youa that the soldiers in Laos will not harm her. Then, he apologizes for not knowing the places she lived in the jungle, but he hopes that she will find her way. Then, the guide tells her how to find her way back to her village and the exact spot where she was born, where the placenta from her birth is buried.
In giving very detailed instructions to Youa’s body for its post-death journey home, the funeral guide reveals that the Hmong believe deceased people’s spirits travel just like living people do. This explains why they have a lot of anxiety about dying far away from their homeland, as the post-death journey home will take a lot longer.
Themes
Kao imagines Youa opening the door to her childhood home and seeing her parents there—they’ll ask Youa where she’s been and tell her that they’ve missed her. The guide starts chanting and the coffin is brought in (the best one that Bee and his brothers could afford). The guide explains that Youa’s coffin is her horse, and it will carry her on her journey home. After the ceremony, the funeral home buzzes with 300 or so community members, who eat a feast. The funeral is a success.
The Hmong believe that when a person’s spirit returns to their ancestral lands, it can reunite with deceased relatives who are buried there. For this reason, a close connection to their ancestral home is very important to the Hmong.
Themes
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The next day involves more visits from the Hmong community. They talk about Youa’s how rare and uncommon it is in these times for one Hmong person to have so many descendants; Youa was always proud that she had over 250 grandchildren. Kao imagines Youa walking amongst the crowd, relaxed and happy. Kao’s uncle Eng delivers a eulogy: he explains that Youa was good to them. She managed to ensure that they all survived the war, and she was a woman who taught them how to be men. Eng plays a video with imagery of Youa spliced with Vietnam War footage from a documentary.
The entire community shows up for Youa’s death, showing that she’s not only the head of her family, but also a leading pillar of the community. In this eulogy, Eng acknowledges what Yang has been hinting all along: that despite the Hmong’s emphasis on men in their communities, it’s often women (like Youa) who end up being their communities’ strongest, most competent, and most important assets.
Themes
Kao imagines Youa walking away with a basket on her back, her flip flops kicking up dirt. Kao cries from somewhere deep inside her, and she stays up all night looking at Youa’s body. The ceremonies continue for another day, and the community marvels at the family’s ability to give Youa such a sendoff. They expect that it’s because she has so many descendants who can split the cost of the festivities—Kao knows that they’re right.
Kao’s visceral grief reinforces the extent of her love for Youa—again, it suggests that familial love is much deeper and more profound than romantic love for Yang. Meanwhile, the days-long festivities are a testament to Youa’s status as the head of the family and an important figure in the Hmong community.
Themes
The ceremony’s final night ceremony is the most important: all of Youa’s descendants must sit by her coffin while the guide sings Youa’s final wishes. The adults tell the children to pay attention to the guide’s words. The guide sings that Youa is on her long journey now, and that Youa loves her family but that she cannot return. The guide is in a trance, and Kao knows that Youa might be speaking through him. Bee sits next to Kao, with his head hanging low. His rough, factory-worn hands are in his lap. Bee’s siblings are all there. His sister beats her hands into the carpet out of grief.
Bee’s rough hands are a reminder that immigrants often have to work exhausting manual labor jobs to get by—even after having lived in their new country for many years. Meanwhile, the guide continues highlighting Hmong beliefs about spirits traveling to their homeland after death. The grief that Youa’s children experience continue to build on the idea that familial love is a deep and powerful force in the Hmong community.
Themes
There are many community members present. They all used to call Youa mother, because they didn’t have their own mothers anymore. The guide sings that Youa wants her children to stay together; she wants her descendants to know what she would have taught them herself, and she wants them to have lives full of more laughter and love than she had in her own life. Kao listens with rapt attention—she doesn’t want the night to end. As dawn approaches, the guide tells Kao’s family to say their final goodbye.
The fact that many people in the community view Youa as their mother indicates that the entire community really looks up to Youa and thinks of her as a matriarchal figurehead—even though their cultural values tend to privilege the authority of men. The funeral guide’s final ritual echoes the story’s emphasis on family bonds.
Themes
Kao’s family buries the body at 10 a.m. It’s chilly outside, and the wind blows the snow around. Kao touches Youa’s forehead one last time, and then Dawb does the same. They warm dirt in their hands and throw it on the lowered coffin, knowing that Youa will need the warmth for her long journey. Kao tells Youa that she’ll see her again, and she promises to always be Hmong. Kao also tells Youa to not be scared—she promises that Youa’s new life will not be marred by war, sickness, or death. Kao knows that Youa will have the strength to complete the long journey home.
Kao’s final promises to Youa speak to the Hmong’s belief that Youa’s spirit has a long and difficult post-death journey ahead of her, because she’s so far away from home. Kao’s strength in this moment (expressed through her parting words to Youa) show that she, too, is emerging as a strong and resilient figure in the story, despite her culture’s tendency to favor men.
Themes
