The Leavers tells the life experience and spiritual growth history of the mother Peilan and the son Deming. Guo Peilan, a Chinese woman who smuggled into the United States, and her illegitimate son Guo Deming, who was born in the United States, drifted in a foreign land and separated several times. New York and Fujian, cities, and villages, meet and lose. The mother and son have two names and two identities respectively. Phinney said, “individuals may have independent identities with respect to their cultures of origin and to their societies of settlement”. (Phinney, 2000) Between the different cultural atmospheres, what they constantly lose and look for is not only the old life and new ideal but also the old identity and new self.
Deming was born in the United States. When he was still a baby, he was sent back to his hometown by his mother Guo Peilan, who had not yet established a foothold in a foreign country. In a village in Fujian Province, China, he was raised by his grandfather until his grandfather died suddenly at the age of 6, and he was taken back to the United States by his mother. The mother’s “abandonment” filled the relationship between mother and son with a vague sense of tension, resulting in a tension emotion – Deming rebelled and longed for mother’s love, Peilan deeply loved her son and longed for freedom. But fortunately, in the common life with Leon, Vivian, and Michael from Fujian, everything seems to be on the right track. However, Peilan suddenly disappeared one day when Deming was 11 years old. In the painful waiting and doubt, Deming was finally given to an American couple for adoption and had an American name “Daniel”. He had to accept a “fact” – his mother “abandoned” him again. Although he seems to have a better life, Deming and Daniel, who changed his name, have been living in a sense of alienation and insecurity. He is out of tune with his surroundings, classmates, and even adoptive parents. “Ethnic identity has been conceptualized and measured in a wide variety of ways, often without basis in theory” (Phinney, 1990). Only in music can he find himself. Not only that, he always messed up everything: school, friendship, family, including his favorite music. Subconsciously, he felt that he didn’t deserve success. He swayed and couldn’t accept his current self, and he didn’t have the courage to find his ideal self. Until one day, he learned the news of his long-lost mother and began the journey of finding his mother again.
Deming has found his mother and found his former self, but he still has to face the choice – whether to live with his mother in China or return to the United States to continue to pursue his dream of music. But it was not until the trauma caused by “abandonment” was healed that he had the courage to face the next life and realized that no matter how he had been, he must constantly face choices and countless possible selves. Finally, he found his mother and “left” his mother. But the return of the role of mother is the beginning for him to find his former self, accept his current self and have the courage to find his future self.
An important image accompanying Peilan is “sea”. The sea symbolizes instability, uncertainty, and freedom. Peilan is always uneasy about the status quo and is always looking for something. From coastal villages in Fujian of China to New York to being repatriated, the image of “sea” or “water” always accompanied Peilan. In the villages of Fujian, the seaside is the favorite place for the girl Peilan; In New York, the smell of the sea gave her courage and determination to become a mother; In the big city of Fuzhou, Peilan, who is already a “successful” woman, chose her residence by the water (in fact, Deming finally found her mother’s residence through “water”). Peilan has a kind of tenacity, self-doubt, and restlessness – she loves her son Deming, lover Leon and her husband He Yong, but she has never forgotten herself and the self she vaguely feels and yearns for.
The two protagonists in The Leavers have the shadow of the author Lisa to varying degrees. Deming is her side as a child, and Peilan is her side as a woman. From Lisa’s personal website, we can see that she is a rebellious and thoughtful woman, and has had a strong self-consciousness since childhood. Lisa is the second generation of immigrants and the first child born after her parents immigrated to the United States. Although she grew up in the United States, the cultural imprint brought to her by her parents and Asian faces can never be erased, making her out of tune with her surroundings – just like Deming in the book. Only in reading, writing, and music can she find inner peace and true self. Until one day, she saw a report, the story of an illegal immigrant Chinese woman, and came up with the idea of writing this novel. Or in her own words, she realized long ago that she should write “people like me”. “Chinese immigrants are now the third-largest foreign-born group in the United States after Mexicans and Indians, numbering more than 2 million and comprising 5 percent of the overall immigrant population in 2013.”(Hooper & Batalova, 2015) Therefore, there are many Chinese immigrants such as Lisa and Deming.
The Leavers represent not only immigrants, but also a minority, but also everyone who wanders and seeks himself “alone” in society. “The issue of ethnic identity is particularly salient for adolescents whose parents are immigrants” (Rumbaut, 1994). They are all single people and most people. In this sense, the book “The Leavers” not only has a strong practical reference significance – it discusses the immigration problem, the history and current situation of American immigration ecology, women’s independence and growth, but also the most real spiritual portrayal of each of us – we are “The Leavers”, constantly looking for the lost and waiting to be found “self”.
Works Cited:
Ko, Lisa. The Leavers a Novel. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2018.
Hooper, K., & Batalova, J. (2015). Chinese immigrants in the United States. Migration Policy Institute, 28. https://www.immigrationresearch.org/system/files/Chinese_Immigrants_in_the_United_States.pdf
Berry, J. W., Phinney, J. S., Sam, D. L., & Vedder, P. (2006). Immigrant youth: Acculturation, identity, and adaptation. Applied psychology, 55(3), 303-332. https://iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2006.00256.x
Phinney, J. S., Romero, I., Nava, M., & Huang, D. (2001). The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(2), 135-153. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1010389607319