The Boy’s Mother Character Analysis in The Refugees

The mother of the boy who narrates “War Years.” She had fled Vietnam with the boy’s father and the boy after the Communists had seized her husband’s auto parts store. She now owns a grocery store, the New Saigon Market, with her husband in San Jose, California. In the story, the boy’s mother is at the center of two conflicts. The first is with her son, as she is trying to maintain the boy’s sense of his Vietnamese culture and she herself is reluctant to assimilate. The second is with a neighbor, Mrs. Hoa, who asks for money to support a South Vietnamese guerilla army training in Thailand. The boy’s mother at first refuses because she believes trying to win back the country is a lost cause. But gradually she relents when she hears that Mrs. Hoa’s husband and son went missing after the war, and she sees how Mrs. Hoa is haunted by the possibility of getting them back. But after she gives Mrs. Hoa the money, she sees the harm in being stuck in the past, and she realizes that moving forward with her son means assimilating into American culture to some degree.

The Boy’s Mother Quotes in The Refugees

The The Refugees quotes below are all either spoken by The Boy’s Mother or refer to The Boy’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

War and the Refugee Experience Theme Icon

“And what about bologna?”

“What?” My mother’s brow furrowed. “If I can’t pronounce it, my customers won’t buy it.”

Related Characters: The Boy (speaker), The Boy’s Mother (speaker), The boy’s father

Page Number and Citation: 50

Explanation and Analysis:

In “War Years,” the narrator is a young boy whose parents escaped from Vietnam when he was only a small child, and who now live in San Jose, California and own a Vietnamese grocery store. One of the main conflicts in the story occurs between the young boy, who is growing up surrounded by American culture, and his parents, who are still deeply immersed in Vietnamese culture and who object to their son’s changing values. In this quote that tension is made concrete. The boy asks why they can’t sell bologna (and TV dinners) in the store, two quintessentially American Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur

More than all those people starved by famine, it was the thought of my mother not remembering what she looked like as a little girl that saddened me.

Related Characters: The Boy (speaker), The Boy’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 64

Explanation and Analysis:

Throughout the story, the boy reveals some of the hardships that his mother experienced when she was young, like a severe famine at the end of the Second World War that left many other children in her village dead of starvation. The boy tries to picture what his mother might have looked like as a little girl, but finds himself unable to do so. Part of the sadness that he expresses here comes not from the fact that his mother was forced to endure hardships, but that because of the Vietnam War there are pieces of her life that she Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. A

It was a trivial secret, but one I would remember as vividly as my feeling that while some people are haunted by the dead, others are haunted by the living.

Related Characters: The Boy (speaker), Mrs. Hoa, The Boy’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 71

Explanation and Analysis:

When the boy and his mother visit Mrs. Hoa at her home, the boy’s mother has a change of heart and decides to give Mrs. Hoa the money to support the guerilla army. As they leave, the boy notices that Mrs. Hoa dyes her hair black to hide her white hair. The boy realizes that Mrs. Hoa is haunted, as she had explained that her husband and two sons had served in the military in Vietnam. She doesn’t know whether her husband and younger son are dead—only that they never came back from the war. Thus, Mrs. Hoa is haunted Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Molliti

“Go buy,” she said in English, motioning me inside. Whenever she spoke in English, her voice took on a higher pitch, as if instead of coming from inside her, the language was outside, squeezing her by the throat.

Related Characters: The Boy (speaker), The Boy’s Mother (speaker), The boy’s father, Mrs. Hoa

Page Number and Citation: 72

Explanation and Analysis:

At the end “War Years,” after the boy and his mother visit Mrs. Hoa and the boy’s mother gives her money, the mother makes another symbolic gesture. When they drive home, the boy’s mother gives him a five dollar bill and takes him to a 7-Eleven, before telling him, in English, to buy what he wants. This is a symbolic gesture for several reasons: first, the boy explains that he had once asked for an allowance—no doubt because many of his American classmates had one—and his father had told him that he had incurred $24,376 in expenses over his lifetime Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaq

The Boy’s Mother Character Timeline in The Refugees

The timeline below shows where the character The Boy’s Mother appears in The Refugees. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The narrator of this chapter is an unnamed thirteen-year-old boy who begins by describing the boy’s mother ’s normal routine. She is already dressed by the time she taps on his door... (full context)

Customers crowd the market as they haggle over different goods with the boy’s mother . The boy asks his mother why they can’t sell TV dinners, or bologna. She... (full context)

...and introduces herself. She is in her late forties and dressed in monochrome. She tells the boy’s mother that she is collecting funds for a guerilla army that’s gearing up to fight against... (full context)

The boy’s mother says she’d like to help, but that times are hard and she has no money... (full context)

On their way home that night, the boy asks the boy’s mother why she doesn’t want to help soldiers fight the Communists—who, to him, are also the... (full context)

That night, the boy’s father tells the boy’s mother that it might be prudent to pay a little hush money. The boy tries to... (full context)

Over the days following Mrs. Hoa’s visit, the boy’s mother is clearly unsettled. As the boy and his mother calculate the market’s earnings for the... (full context)

...boy says that his mother and father always say that the Communists are bad people, the boy’s mother agrees. She says, “They don’t believe in God and they don’t believe in money.” The... (full context)

The boy’s mother says that she hates the Communists as much as Mrs. Hoa, but that she refuses... (full context)

The boy’s mother ’s fears of robbery are confirmed one night when someone knocks on the door. The... (full context)

...fear, and the boy’s father gets down on his knees, as does the boy. But the boy’s mother does not get down. The man asks the boy what her problem is, assuming that... (full context)

That Sunday, the boy’s mother combs the boy’s hair before church. He doesn’t protest, thinking about what had happened after... (full context)

...boy, calling him handsome, and inquiring about their daughter’s college and what her major was. The boy’s mother cannot pronounce Bryn Mawr, and looks down in shame when she says that her daughter... (full context)

The boy’s mother decides to follow Mrs. Hoa home and takes the boy with her. In the car,... (full context)

The boy explains that he sometimes tries to imagine what the boy’s mother looked like as a girl, but he cannot. Without a photo, he thinks, his mother... (full context)

...surrounded by stacks of rice and reading about Reconstruction. When Mrs. Hoa reiterates her request, the boy’s mother says she refuses to donate money, calling Mrs. Hoa a thief and an extortionist. Mrs.... (full context)

The boy’s mother is nervous about the customers, who would likely tell their friends about the incident until... (full context)

When Mrs. Hoa asks what she wants, the boy’s mother notices army uniforms in her closet, prompting the boy’s mother to ask if Mrs. Hoa’s... (full context)

The boy’s mother takes out an envelope and hands Mrs. Hoa two hundred dollars. The boy is shocked,... (full context)

As the boy and the boy’s mother turn to leave, Mrs. Hoa explains that the Communists don’t respect anyone, not even the... (full context)

As the boy and the boy’s mother drive home, she tells him that he deserves a treat. He doesn’t know how to... (full context)

The Boy’s Mother Character Analysis

The Boy’s Mother Quotes in The Refugees

War Years Quotes

The Boy’s Mother Character Timeline in The Refugees