We are also told Polly’s story – of how she came to America to seek a better life for herself and her then unborn child. Their attempts to connect Daniel to his culture come across as superficial and his confused reaction to these attempts shows us that it is often not enough to just mean well. The main characters, Deming and his mother, are well fleshed out and although both have their faults and both can both be unlikable at times, they are definitely well rounded, and they feel genuine.ĭeming’s adoptive parents, Kay and Peter, though well-meaning, try to encourage ‘Daniel’ to erase his past and think of his life with them as a new start. Deming doesn’t feel Chinese, but Daniel doesn’t feel American either. At its heart, The Leavers is a story about not belonging. Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with the memory of his past. In time, Deming is adopted by a white American family and soon becomes Daniel Wilkinson. “It was home, a home, but he knew he would have to leave here, too.”ĭeming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese woman in America, disappears when he is just eleven years old – she goes to work one day, and never comes home.
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