Emancipation, by definition, is “free[dom], especially from legal, social, or political restrictions.” (“emancipate”) In the novel What We All Long For, all main characters face such restrictions. Tuyen, for instance, is affected by how the city is perceiving her and her family’s origin as primarily one thing: “Vietnamese food” (Brand 67). To outrun those stereotypes herself, she and her friends use her and Carla’s home as “a place of refuge” (XX). Furthermore, the characters associate additional and personal components with their own perception of emancipation. In the case of Tuyen, emancipation is tightly linked to distance and independence from her family and everything she associates with it. This shows especially in her seemingly rejective
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Carla, like all protagonists, has a difficult relationship to her family. Her stimulus for all decisions made in her life can be considered as converse to that of Tuyen as Carla bases her choices on the love for her mother, Angie: “She would never be free of Angie. She didn’t want to be free of her.” (314) When Carla, who loves her brother with “possessive passion” (236), uses the word “mine” to refer to Jamal, she seems to deeply influence Tuyen’s mentality. Tuyen reacts with the feeling of “self-betrayal” (26) and later “embarrassment” (120), repeatedly thinking back to this moment. Towards the end of the novel, Tuyen realizes that she was “not immune to [her parents’] opinions” (267), and is highly conscious of the fact that the return (and from the recipients’ point of view maybe even more so the potential death) of her long lost brother has given rise to new ties between Tuyen and her family. She even asks herself whether she is afraid to “no longer be the centre of attention” (296) of her family but decides that, including the potential change of the relationship between her and her family, “[e]verything would be fine.” (304)
Tuyen’s character and her part of the story can ultimately be referred to as dynamic and controversial, making herself a round and dynamic character. Her perception
Carla, like all protagonists, has a difficult relationship to her family. Her stimulus for all decisions made in her life can be considered as converse to that of Tuyen as Carla bases her choices on the love for her mother, Angie: “She would never be free of Angie. She didn’t want to be free of her.” (314) When Carla, who loves her brother with “possessive passion” (236), uses the word “mine” to refer to Jamal, she seems to deeply influence Tuyen’s mentality. Tuyen reacts with the feeling of “self-betrayal” (26) and later “embarrassment” (120), repeatedly thinking back to this moment. Towards the end of the novel, Tuyen realizes that she was “not immune to [her parents’] opinions” (267), and is highly conscious of the fact that the return (and from the recipients’ point of view maybe even more so the potential death) of her long lost brother has given rise to new ties between Tuyen and her family. She even asks herself whether she is afraid to “no longer be the centre of attention” (296) of her family but decides that, including the potential change of the relationship between her and her family, “[e]verything would be fine.” (304)
Tuyen’s character and her part of the story can ultimately be referred to as dynamic and controversial, making herself a round and dynamic character. Her perception