Deming’s grandfather, who lives in the Chinese village in which Polly grew up. When Deming is still quite young, Polly sends him to live with her father because she can’t afford to pay a babysitter to watch him while she’s at work. Several years later, her father dies, so Deming returns to New York as a six-year-old.
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Polly’s Father Character Timeline in The Leavers
The timeline below shows where the character Polly’s Father appears in The Leavers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
...this happened, so she doesn’t remember anything about her. As such, she often asked her father questions about her mother, though he rarely answered. Instead, he talked about how poor he...
(full context)
...smoking a cigarette. The next year, she doesn’t return to class, instead listening to her father complain about “commercial fishing boats coming down the river from Fuzhou” and taking all the...
(full context)
...go to Fuzhou to work as a seamstress in a garment factory, and though her father says factory work is something only boys should do, she pays no attention, telling him...
(full context)
...Fuzhou, Peilan works hard but enjoys her independence, sending so much money back to her father that soon other families let their daughters follow her to the city. Before long, Haifeng...
(full context)
Peilan tells her father that she’s home for a short vacation. Keeping her pregnancy a secret, she ruminates about...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...live in New York City after sending Deming to China. Every week, she calls her father and talks to her child, who’s now five. One day, Haifeng’s mother answers the phone...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...her way back to her childhood village, where she finds Haifeng’s mother living in Polly’s father’s old house. “We’ve been using it,” Haifeng’s mother explains, saying that she didn’t know how...
(full context)
