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Booker
Cedric is Booker’s friend and fellow Taiwanese immigrant, whom Mr. Chang hires when Booker is out sick, and then on a more regular basis. Cedric is a jokester, calling Mona and Callie “shou hou—skinny monkeys,” then winking at them as he filches used cigarettes from ashtrays for a single puff. Despite his jocular personality, the rest of the kitchen turns against Cedric, possibly out of racism or a sense of displacement inside their restaurant. On the one hand, Cedric is an underdog struggling to make ends meet in the U.S. without employment papers. On the other hand, the kitchen’s hostility against him introduces some doubt as to his honesty. This doubt remains after he and Booker run away to avoid trial without repaying their bail to Mr. Chang. Their letter, which calls Mr. Chang a great boss and thanks him, reveals loyalty to their manager without acknowledging the difficult situation they’ve put him in. Cedric’s circumstances—and their effect on Mr. Chang—show the complexities of trying to succeed in American society as an immigrant worker.
Cedric Quotes in In the American Society
The In the American Society quotes below are all either spoken by Cedric or refer to Cedric . 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:
).
His Own Society
Quotes
“So what else I should do?” My father threw up his hands. “Those are my boys.”
“Your boys!” exploded my mother. “What about your family? What about your wife?”
My father took a long sip of tea. “You know,” he said finally, “in the war my father sent our cook to the soldiers to use. He always said it—the province comes before the town, the town comes before the family.”
“A restaurant is not a town,” said my mother.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Cedric Quotes in In the American Society
The In the American Society quotes below are all either spoken by Cedric or refer to Cedric . 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:
).
His Own Society
Quotes
“So what else I should do?” My father threw up his hands. “Those are my boys.”
“Your boys!” exploded my mother. “What about your family? What about your wife?”
My father took a long sip of tea. “You know,” he said finally, “in the war my father sent our cook to the soldiers to use. He always said it—the province comes before the town, the town comes before the family.”
“A restaurant is not a town,” said my mother.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
