I kept close watch on Jin’s front door, convinced he was a plaincoat, a spy. Grandmother and Mother would shake their fists and tell me what an ungrateful little girl I was, and how desperately they had hoped for a boy-that was how my family demonstrated love, except for my father, who had once been a scholar and translator but now said very little. I used to vow to run away at the first opportunity. I knew I was going to be stuck in Block Six forever because my family needed me to buy their vegetables, cook their meals, take them to their medical appointments, and eventually pay the bills for the next hundred years they planned to live. I was the only child on the twentieth floor. He has the kind of face that can never look sad.” The first thing she asked him was where his wife was and how many children he had.īack home, Grandmother said, “He’s only half a watermelon. Not long after he arrived, my grandmother met him in the corridor. He looked like a northerner, quite practical, had strong eyebrows and teeth, and when he smiled you felt he wasn’t plotting against you and that, in fact, he’d be happy to see you do well in life. GradeSaver, 5 July 2020 Web.Jin moved into an apartment on the twentieth floor of Block Six, down the corridor from us, when I was nine years old. Next Section Glossary Previous Section Simple Recipes Summary How To Cite in MLA Format Singh, Arpita. Will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. You can help us out by revising, improving and updatingĪfter you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Paula elopes from her house because she can't bring herself to tell her friend that her father abuses her sexually. Her best friend doesn't understand her changed behavior and starts avoiding her. Paula is a teenage girl who has anxiety and hyperphagia. She takes her daughters on a trip along with her lover and decides to leave her husband but, her daughters refuse to come with her and demand to go back to their father. Her eldest daughter gets to know that Irene loves a man and wants to live with him. Irene is not happy with her marriage and growing apart from her husband. One day, she witnesses her father beating her elder brother because his brother dislikes Malaysian food, and this incident changes the relationship between her and her father.

The Narrator admires her father's cooking and tries to follow his style. He appreciates his culture and loves his daughter (the Narrator) because she takes an interest in learning about her culture and loves to cook Malaysian food. The Narrator's father is a Malaysian immigrant.

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