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Bích
Thi Bui’s younger brother, who is born in 1978 in Malaysia, near the Pulau Besar Refugee Camp. Because of their age difference from their older sisters Lan and Bích, Thi and Tâm essentially grow up in the United States and do not know anything about Việt Nam (indeed, Tâm never even lived there, and moved to the US as a newborn). He and Thi are also playmates, stuck at home with Bố while everyone else goes to school or work. Bố frightens them both, leading Tâm to spend hours and hours hiding in his closet. When they travel to Sài Gòn with Má and their elder sisters, Thi and Tâm spend their time “documenting in lieu of remembering.” With his wife and two children, Tâm moves back to his hometown in California as an adult, just like the rest of his siblings.
Tâm Quotes in The Best We Could Do
The The Best We Could Do quotes below are all either spoken by Tâm or refer to Tâm. 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:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
I still have the chessboard my father made when I was a kid, and the wooden set of pieces we played with.
the CHARIOT
the ELEPHANT
the GENERAL
the COUNSELOR
the SOLDIERS
Revisiting this game of war and strategy, I think about how none of the Vietnamese people in that video have a name or a voice.
My grandparents, my parents, my sisters, and me—
—we weren’t any of the pieces on the chessboard.
We were more like ants, scrambling out of the way of giants, getting just far enough from danger to resume the business of living
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Best We Could Do LitChart as a printable PDF.
Tâm Quotes in The Best We Could Do
The The Best We Could Do quotes below are all either spoken by Tâm or refer to Tâm. 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:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
I still have the chessboard my father made when I was a kid, and the wooden set of pieces we played with.
the CHARIOT
the ELEPHANT
the GENERAL
the COUNSELOR
the SOLDIERS
Revisiting this game of war and strategy, I think about how none of the Vietnamese people in that video have a name or a voice.
My grandparents, my parents, my sisters, and me—
—we weren’t any of the pieces on the chessboard.
We were more like ants, scrambling out of the way of giants, getting just far enough from danger to resume the business of living
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
