At an early age, An-mei Hsu learns lessons in stoic and severe love from her grandmother, Popo, and from her mother. Her mother also teaches her to swallow her tears, to conceal her pain, and to distrust others. Although An-mei later learns to speak up and assert herself, she fears that she has handed down a certain passivity to her daughter Rose.
An-mei sees “fate” as what one is “destined” to struggle toward achieving. When her youngest child Bing dies, An-mei ceases to express any outward faith in God, but retains her belief in the force of will. Rose initially believed that the death had caused her mother to lose faith altogether, but she eventually realizes that she may have misinterpreted her mother’s behaviors.
once there was a maid she loved her job but she just wanted to have some food because all she ate was a peace of bread every day one day she saw a room she thought she should clean up in there but there was all of the food in the world she locked the door and ate up the end
