The book Girl in Translation is a coming of age novel about a young Chinese immigrant, Kim and her daily struggles. It begins when she is eleven and she arrives in New York with only her mother and is greeted by her mother’s sister, Paula. Throughout the book, the family goes through a lot of hardships. Most of the hardships that they go through are a result of Paula not helping them adapt. In addition, the absence of Kim’s dead father also makes it harder for them. In the book, the author uses three main settings; the factory where they work, Kim’s school, and their house, and then shows how each condition improves to show how good things can come from bad.
Life at their house is very hard for Kim and her Mother for the first couple of years. This is mostly because the house is in very bad condition. In fact, it is probably even illegal to even be living there. There are mice and roaches and the windows are broken. What’s even worse is that there is no heat. This is very hard for them in the winter especially since all the windows are broken, so cold wind is constantly gushing in. They don’t have the money to buy blankets as well which made it even harder to live there. However, then later at the end of the book, the family saves up enough money and can finally buy a new house! This house isn’t obviously a mansion, but it is a nice apartment with heating and no roaches. The family worked hard so they could afford this nicer and safer home. Their terrible living situation turned into a good one when they bought the new house.
The factory that Kim and her mother work at has very dangerous conditions. Again, like many factories in that time period, the working conditions were illegal because they are so bad. People are constantly getting hurt and sick because how unsanitary everything is. However, after a while at this bad job, a good thing came from it because through this job, Kim not only met the love of her life but another worker told her and her mother about another job that they could work at with much safer conditions and better pay. If Kim and her mother never experienced this hard job, they would never have gotten these rewards.
At the first school that Kim goes to, she has a very hard time fitting in. This is because so many people treat her differently because she is an immigrant, including her racist 5th grade teacher. They think that she isn’t smart because she can’t speak English perfectly so they don’t pay any attention to her and when they do pay attention to her it is to make fun of her and tease her. However, this doesn’t remain consistent for the entire book. When she graduates fifth grade and has to apply for middle school, her Principal realizes how smart she really is when she sees the results of Kim’s state tests. She then pushes Kim to go to a fancy private school because she knows that Kim will do well there. Then Kim gets a full scholarship to this amazing school! Later, as she gets older, matures, and improves her english, she starts to understand the American way of life a lot better which makes it easier for her to fit in. She starts making more friends but it is hard for her to keep them all because of her life style. However, she does have one friend, Annette, who she has stayed by her side forever because she is accepting and doesn’t ask too many questions about Kim’s different life. After all of her hardships at school, good things did come from her first struggles.
Kim and her mother struggle for the basic necessities of life like food and shelter at some points in the book but through their hard work together, they made enough money to improve their life. Kim goes from not having enough money to buy blankets for her bed to becoming a fancy doctor with enough sheets to last a lifetime, in only about 10 years because of all of her and her mother’s hard work.
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