56 pages • 1-hour read
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Symbols & Motifs
Soccer Ball
The soccer ball serves as a dynamic symbol that evolves alongside Mia’s personal growth, reflecting her journey from fear and insecurity to empowerment and healing. At the beginning of the novel, the soccer ball is a source of anxiety for Mia. It represents physical danger and, more deeply, the invisible burden of growing up in a financially precarious immigrant family. Even though her family now has health insurance, Mia has internalized the fear of uninsured medical emergencies leading to financial ruin. To her, getting hit by the ball isn’t about a scraped knee, it’s a potential crisis for her family’s financial survival. In this way, the soccer ball embodies the lingering trauma of her family’s past struggles and the protective instinct she’s developed as a result.
As the story progresses, the soccer ball takes on new meaning. Instead of fearing it, Mia begins to engage with it—first reluctantly, then with growing confidence. Her shift mirrors her broader emotional work she’s: learning to push through internalized fears, silencing the negative self-talk, and allowing herself to take risks. When she begins kicking the ball around as a way of venting her emotions, the soccer ball becomes a tool for catharsis, a way of physically processing everything she can’t always say out loud. It also becomes a symbol of love and belief when her father gives her a ball as a gift, demonstrating her parents’ support and trust in her, helping her to find confidence and empowerment in the thing she once feared. By the end of the novel, the soccer ball no longer represents fear—it becomes a symbol of resilience, personal growth, and the strength that comes from both inner courage and community support.
Crunch Burger
Hank’s crunch burger acts as symbol of entrepreneurship, creativity, and the American Dream. It is the product of his ingenuity and a symbol of his hopes for upward mobility. Hank develops the burger by experimenting with flavors and textures, blending creativity with hard work to build something original and valuable. For Hank, the crunch burger represents a chance to turn his skills into a sustainable business, one that could support him and help him gain recognition for his talent. Hank’s journey mirrors the novel’s broader exploration of the American Dream throughout the novel: the idea that with perseverance and innovation, someone from a working-class background can succeed on their own terms.
The journey of the crunch burger also demonstrates the obstacles and systemic inequalities that can get in the way of that dream. When Mr. Wamble steals the recipe and claims it as his own, Hank is forced to confront the reality that talent and hard work alone are not enough—structural inequalities, power imbalances, and exploitation can threaten even the most promising ideas. Still, the burger itself continues to symbolize what’s possible when creativity and resilience come together. It becomes a representation not just of what Hank has made, but of what he—and others in his community—can still fight for: recognition, fairness, and the right to define success on their own terms.
The Tang’s New House
As the Tangs look for their own house, the conceptual idea of a family-owned home becomes the central symbol of the American Dream and the Tang family’s ongoing struggle for dignity, autonomy, and belonging. For Mia and her parents, owning a home represents more than shelter. It signifies control over their lives, a reprieve from the constant pressures of working in the service industry, and a space where they can finally breathe freely. It offers privacy, independence, and the opportunity to pursue personal goals, such as Mia’s writing. In contrast to the motel they manage where customers dictate their daily rhythms and their living space is shared with their work, the idea of a house embodies a future where they can live on their own terms.
The Tang family’s search for a home reveals how structural racism and exclusion shape access to that dream. As the Tangs are rejected by real estate agents and potential neighbors based on prejudiced assumptions about Chinese Americans, the story illustrates how difficult it can be for immigrant families to put down roots. The house becomes a marker of one’s status in a community, and the Tang family’s struggle to be accepted underscores how homeownership is not just a private success but a public symbol of legitimacy and belonging. The house with asbestos that The Tangs nearly buy symbolizes how families of color are often expected to accept substandard conditions and damaged dreams dressed up as opportunities. Mia’s realization that even toxic houses are marketed to people like her family speaks to the deeper injuries caused by racism: long-lasting damage, internalized limitations, and the scars left on a community’s sense of worth. The Tang family’s refusal to settle affirms their right to live with dignity and safety. Their fight for a real home becomes a declaration that they deserve not only a place to live but a place to thrive.
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