The Latehomecomer

by

Kao Kalia Yang

Chue’s Mother Character Analysis

Chue’s mother is a fugitive who flees into the Laotian jungle in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. She showers her daughter Chue with love, and Chue is traumatized when they’re separated forever after Chue’s marriage to Bee. In many instances, Chue even thinks that her love for her mother trumps her love for her husband, and she often regrets leaving her family to marry Bee and live in Bee’s family unit. The last time Chue sees her mother alive is when her mother is walking away to fetch water in the jungle; they are separated by distance and exile, as Chue and Bee flee to a refugee camp and then to the U.S. after this. Chue’s mother dies several years later in Laos, and Chue is inconsolable with grief. Chue’s unyielding love for her mother stresses the power of the mother-daughter bond.

Chue’s Mother Quotes in The Latehomecomer

The The Latehomecomer quotes below are all either spoken by Chue’s Mother or refer to Chue’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:
Politics, Refugee Camps, and Inhumanity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

My mother says she would not have married my father had she known that in doing so she would have to leave forever her mother and everyone else who loved her.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Bee Yang , Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

With her fingers she dug into the moist ground of a bamboo patch. In the shallow hole, she placed all the pictures of her brothers, her mother herself. She felt the bamboo trunk with her hands in the dark. If she ever touched that bamboo again, she told herself forming the words on her lips, she would remember. One day, she would find the pictures again.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Bee Yang , Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

I had the freedom to stand strong in the wake of love and to perhaps choose my own mother—instead of a man.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
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Chue’s Mother Quotes in The Latehomecomer

The The Latehomecomer quotes below are all either spoken by Chue’s Mother or refer to Chue’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:
Politics, Refugee Camps, and Inhumanity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

My mother says she would not have married my father had she known that in doing so she would have to leave forever her mother and everyone else who loved her.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Bee Yang , Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

With her fingers she dug into the moist ground of a bamboo patch. In the shallow hole, she placed all the pictures of her brothers, her mother herself. She felt the bamboo trunk with her hands in the dark. If she ever touched that bamboo again, she told herself forming the words on her lips, she would remember. One day, she would find the pictures again.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Bee Yang , Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 37
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

I had the freedom to stand strong in the wake of love and to perhaps choose my own mother—instead of a man.

Related Characters: Kao Kalia Yang (speaker), Chue Moua , Chue’s Mother
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis: