"Coming Home Again" by Chang-rae Lee

 "Are they sleeping? Or kissing? Are they all right?"

This story, while written as a straightforward narrative, has a lot to say about the parent-child relationship and the concept of growing up. The narrator is a good representation of the child in our modern world, especially one of non-white parentage. He progresses through his life aiming for success - leaving home for school at age fifteen -  and not really looking back until later. That's not to say it was his fault; his mother sent him to school, and he went along with it. In order to survive in this world, you have to adapt yourself to society's expectations and standards, and staying with your parents is not one of them. This is something with which the mother struggles throughout the story, and that the narrator discovers after the fact. Parents often will hide their struggles with you growing up, and choose your success over their desire to remain a family. The child only finds out about this after he or she grows up. "Coming Home Again" does a great job showcasing that dynamic.

The quote above is the last line in the piece, and it shows how the narrator still doesn't fully understand how his parents feel. His mother was upset by seeing her child go off and be without her, and his father was too. The narrator, being the child, is unable at this point to fully understand the depth of his parents' feeling of loss at him leaving. He primarily saw Exeter as his path to society and success. 

Another interesting theme in this piece is that of breaking gender stereotypes. There are multiple instances of unexpected actions based on gender. Near the beginning, the mother says to her son that he should go outside, because the kitchen wasn't his place. Later, though, the son is the one doing all the cooking. Instead of becoming the man who can't be seen cooking, he looked up to his mother and aspired to be like her, despite the stereotypes. There was also the basketball scene, where the son expects his mother to go play with his sister, but instead she shows him her basketball skills. Again, we find broken gender boundaries. This seems to exemplify how the son sees his mother. She is not confined or defined by the expected rules of her gender; she is his mother, and more well-rounded than that. 

As a whole, this is a lovely and nostalgic piece. As a reader, I could feel its authenticity and its relevance, despite my life not being much like this man's. It's written in such a way that anyone could connect it to their own life.