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James Lee was born to poor family of immigrants. This would lead James to be self-conscious growing up as he was Chinese while everyone else was mostly white where he grew up.

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Attends a prestigious all-white school for free after passing the entrance exam.

“He spent twelve years at Lloyd and never felt at home. At Lloyd, everyone seemed to be descended from a pilgrim or a senator or a Rockefeller, but when they did family tree projects in class, he pretended to forget the assignment rather than draw his own complicated diagram.”

While attending he is constantly ridiculed and reminded that he is different from the other kids his age. This sets precedents for relationship with Marilyn other events down the line.

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James gets into Harvard and attends as an undergraduate and graduate student. He studies about American History and cowboys in an attempt to "feel more American"

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While teaching as a substitute at Harvard he met Marilyn at her first class in history

“At that he laughed, and she did, too. She watched tiny crinkles form around the corners of his eyes, and when they unfolded, his face was different, softer, a real person’s face now” (35).

This quote is from when Marilyn met James and evoked a sense of sadness in us as we see that he is not seen as a real person when his eyes are crinkled but only when his eyes are "normal sized".

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Gets rejected from Assistant Professor at Harvard

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Gets rejected from Assistant Professor at Harvard

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Despite being the best graduate at his college, he is rejected from this position most likely due to his race.

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He earns a professor position at Middle College in Ohio, sometime before he marries Marilyn.

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Lydia and Nath were born and have grown into their adolescence while Hannah is a toddler. Lydia is mostly seen as the favorite child due to her striking blue eyes which James sees as characteristic that would fit in with the white kids. Even though he feels this way the truth of reality is further from what he hopes.
“You know you’re the only girl in this school who’s not white?” “Yeah? I didn’t realize.” This was a lie. Even with blue eyes, she could not pretend she blended in. “You and Nath, you’re practically the only Chinese people in the whole of Middlewood, I bet.”

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After giving birth to Lydia and Nath, Marilyn comes to the realization of being just like her mother, a plain house wife, runs away in hopes of being able to finish her schooling. During this time James tries to take care of the kids. but he does not compare to Marilyn in this aspect.

“But she did not know how to explain what had happened, how everything had changed in just one day, how someone she loved so dearly could be there one minute, and the next minute: gone” (101).

This quote while representing the fleeing of Marilyn from their house, it also can help to represent how Lydia was alive one day and the next...gone!

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Marilyn calls James subconsciously from a hospital where she is in for over exhausting herself in her studies. When he arrives they have a talk and James wants her to promise to stop the pursuit of becoming a doctor.

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His son, Nath, gets accepted into Harvard

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His son, Nath, gets accepted into Harvard

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This event presents Nath with a way to get away from his family and escape from them for a while. When compared with what James went through during his time at Harvard, Nath's experience would not be the same as he has to deal with all the emotions from his sister's death and hopes to make friends there. And for the first time ever James is actually truly kind to Nath as he is genuinely proud of him.

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The death of Lydia provides a huge turning point in the lives of the Lee family. For James and Marilyn, she was the "favorite child" and her death proves to be something that breaks the family apart in some ways while also keeping them together.

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The family is informed that Lydia's body was found in the bottom of Lake Michigan and it was determined to be a suicide by the officers so they could move on from her case.

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James is upset at Nath for picking up a fight with Jack Wolff at Lydia funeral. After the funeral, looks over a copy of Lydia’s autopsy. James is also probably upset because by creating a scene Nath is making them stand out even further which is something that James despises.

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James cheats on his wife with Louisa, at first he did not intended to cheat till Louisa seduces him toward his bedroom. After doing the deed, James falls into a deep sleep for the first time since Lydia’s missing fiasco. Contemplates what it would've been like to marry someone who's the same race as him in order not to deal with what happened with Lydia.

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James leaves their house to live with Louisa Chen after his family gets into a fight.

“You’re the kind of girl I should have married.”

James said this to Louisa as his family has been constantly fighting with one another. Louisa being another Asian person in their city and his current wife being "another white person" made him feel as though he fits in better with her.

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After missing his family and realizing his number one priority is his family so he comes back home. There he is greeted by Hannah who states that Marilyn is sleeping. His conversation with Hannah makes him realize that being different is just part of life.