Quotes From Novel

1)

"We were paid 1.5 cents per skirt. For years, I calculated whether or not something was expensive by how many skirts it cost. In those days, the subway was 100 skirts just to get to the factory and back, a package of gum cost 7 skirts, a hot dog was 50 skirts, a new toy could range from 300 to 2000 skirts."

This quote told us how important the money in our life. Even though some people say that money cannot buy everything such as love but it we could not survive without it. Nowadays you need money for your whole life; for clothes, for food, for a shelter and even water costs. You may know the proverb ‘Money doesn’t bring happiness’. It’s very controversial. Half says it is wrong, the other says it is true. But would you be happy without any penny? Since money is a large part of our life, you need at least little money to be happy. 

2)

"There’s a Chinese saying that the fates are winds that blow through our lives from every angle, urging us along the paths of time. those who are strong-willed may fight the storm and possibly choose their own road, while the weak must go where they are blown. I say I have not been so much pushed by winds as pulled forward by the force of my decisions. And all the while, I have longed for that which I could not have. At the time it seemed that everything I’d ever wanted was finally within reach. I made a decision that changed the trajectory of the rest of my life."

 lf I had any criticism, I would say that at times Kim did not have enough flaws; she had huge reserves of strength and determination that kept her forever moving in the right direction. Perhaps she was not always good, but neither did she ever really seem weak. However, I could accept her strength because she had essentially no choice but to be continually strong. If she could not do that, she and her mother would be lost under the press of their financial woes and limited options.

3) 

“What a relationship looks like on the outside isn't the same as what it's like on the inside. You can be more in love with someone in your mind than with the person you see every day.” 

As a person we cannot judge a relationship based on what we see in front of our eye. Sometimes, what we see is not the same as we thought it would be. Relationship is something that dealing with emotion. For me, nothing is more difficult than emotions. We can see if a person is angry, she or he is really mad at someone. But in the other hand, maybe she or he cares and loves that someone and that is one way that they show them. Like love from a mother. Besides, we can become more in love with someone in our mind because mind has no limitation. In other words, mind can imagine something that we want to be happened. Even though it is just a dream, it can bring happiness to us. It is different when we see someone that we love everyday without having a chance to know them. They exist in our real life but it will not bring us a full happiness. 

4)

          “cavernous hall bulging with exposed beams and rusting bolts 

                   covered in ever-thickening layers of filth. The fluorescent light 

                   swirled down through the cloud of fabric dust, 

                   bathing the tops of women’s heads”

                   

This quotation describe about the surrounding area in the garment factory. This place is unclean and will probably cause the employees of the factory to get health problems. In addition to that, immigrants that work in the factory can also experience depression. This is not a good condition to work and at the end it will lowers that quality of things that they make.

5)

          "in writing this book, [she] certainly broke the code of silence 
                around poor, working class, Chinese-American immigrants”

               

Jean Kwok said this quote when she was being interviewed by Good Reads Institution in 2010. She really hoped that this book can exposed what was happened to Chinese immigrants during 1980's.