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 May 20, 1979, and the family finds themselves shivering on the Thai side of the river. Thailand smells different. The family feels safe, but they yearn for the land they left behind. Kao’s family is lucky—in two months, Thai soldiers will start killing refugees as they cross the river, to stop the influx. Chue, Bee, and Youa walk along the banks, searching for the rest of their family. A gaunt-looking Bee leads the way. Chue holds Dawb to her chest, happy that the baby is alive. Eventually, they find their family scattered along the banks.
The Hmong people’s yearning for their homeland (where their ancestors are buried) shows how important their ancestral lands are to their culture. Being separated from the physical place of their ancestry causes them deep spiritual angst, because they worry that after they die, they won’t be able to unite with ancestors who are buried there. The ordeal also takes a physical toll on the Hmong people, as evidenced by Bee’s gaunt appearance. Yang’s family is barely alive and struggling to stay intact—but they’re determined to stick together, again emphasizing the importance of family in Hmong culture.
Themes
Nearly all of the group made it, except for Bee’s brother Uncle Chue and his family. Soldiers dragged his children onto a boat, and he went back for them. When Youa hears this, she falls to the ground, inconsolable. She cries out, praying to her dead husband to return her son to her. Her sons help her up, and they walk inland, away from their home and the graves of their family across their river. Soon, they meet some Thai soldiers. The soldiers throw some clothes at Bee, and he picks them up; it pains the proud Chue to watch Bee try to brush the dirt off.
The persecution that Uncle Chue and his family experiences continues to highlight the Hmong people’s suffering, which is intended to foster empathy in the reader. Youa’s grief shows how strongly the Hmong value keeping their family units intact. Her reaction reveals the Hmong people’s belief that their deceased family members’ spirits function like deities who protect them in life.
Themes
Kao’s family follows the men with guns, just like they did on the other side of the river. Bee and Chue will never forget the face of a Thai passerby who looks at them like they’re less than human—they realize what it feels like to be without a homeland. The soldiers bring out some rice, and the children swallow it up. A bus takes them to a fenced-in compound. Bee pauses—he doesn’t want his family to be captives again. Some soldiers kick him, and he gets up quickly to mask his shame. The soldiers lock them in the camp. There’s no more food, so Chue drinks rainwater so that she can produce milk for Dawb.
Being stateless is a dehumanizing experience: both the Thai passerby and the soldier look at Bee and Chue as if they’re inferior, which seems profoundly cruel considering that they were forced to flee Laos. The family begins to experience the mental anguish of living behind walls and fences and feeling caged in—and the refugees also suffer physically for lack of food.
Themes
When the family awakes, Thai people are pointing at them through the fence. UN soldiers arrive to document them, and they make up their birthdays based on their best guesses. The soldiers take them to So Kow Toe, a temporary camp full of different Hmong tribes, surrounded by high aluminum walls. There are no toilets, so people have to defecate under their beds; the family spends a humiliating week there in the stench of human waste. Other Hmong people—feeling bonded by their shared circumstances, despite speaking different dialects—give them mats to sleep on. Trucks feed them watery soup from a hosepipe, one cup each per day.
Again, the refugees are treated more like animals than humans: when the family awakes to see people pointing at them through the fence, they feel like zoo exhibits rather than human beings, which makes them suffer emotionally. The filth and squalor of the camps also cause humiliation and physical discomfort, which further contributes to the dehumanizing atmosphere.
Themes
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The UN soldiers move the family to another camp, where they sleep in the dirt, trying not to think about their hunger. A month later, soldiers move the family back to So Kow Toe for processing. Youa cries with relief when she sees her son Uncle Chue, who was taken from the river. Uncle Chue explains that the Vietnamese soldiers tried to sell his children—they tore his daughter’s clothes off her body. The Vietnamese soldiers wanted to kill Uncle Chue, but he convinced them that he would learn about communism, so they let him live and reunited his family. A week later, he convinced the soldiers to let his family bathe at the river, and they escaped again.
Even though the family has made it to a refugee camp, the conditions are still poor: people have to sleep in the dirt and are constantly hungry. In this way, the Hmong people are constantly victimized and treated inhumanely, whether they’re prisoners of war or refugees. Uncle Chue’s return reminds the reader that the Hmong people were forced to flee violent abuses in Laos, which prompts readers to question why the refugees are treated so poorly—after all, it’s clear that stateless people have no choice but to seek refuge.
Themes
The family talks late into the night, happy to be reunited—they have faith that whatever they face next, they’ll be reunited again. Two days later, the UN soldiers transfer the family to Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. When they board the bus for the camp, there’s no time to get rations. Dawb is very thin, but she’s started crying again, which relieves Chue—she’s starting to feel safe again. They arrive at the camp late at night; this is where Kao will be born.
Despite the precariousness of their position, Yang’s family is thrilled to be reunited, underscoring the importance of family in Hmong culture. Meanwhile, Dawb is clearly suffering from the lack of nutrition in the camps, further exposing how innocent children suffer as helpless victims of war.
Themes
