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Lorelei Hyodo

English 123

Orta

4 May 2020

Long Way From Home

In the novel “Steer Towards Rock” by Fae Myenne Ng, we see the story of a man who

came to America as a paper son. Jack Moon Szeto details his life in ChinaTown, San Francisco,

and the troubles he ran into being an illegitimate son. The book goes through his life meeting

friends, lovers and bosses, and eventually having his own daughter, Veda. Veda is the first

generation in Jack’s family to be born into America. Being a first generation brings a lot of

issues on its own: finding your identity, balancing where you come from versus who you want to

be, expressing yourself and being accepted. Through this book we see the theme that it is

important to understand where your family came from and not lose that part of your identity.

Point of view through this novel changes a number of times but when Veda’s story is told

we look deeper into her as a character. For the majority of the book we see things through Jack’s

eyes, starting from his younger days to when he’s older and working his own cart shop. We

switch to Illin, who was Jack’s paper wife, Gold Szeto’s wife, and eventually Veda Qwan’s life.

Through these different eyes we see different stories and a unique character perspective. Most

significantly, Veda’s. She’s made a career for herself, moved out of ChinaTown and seeks to

naturalize her father officially. Yet, this perspective is special in that she has been more

assimilated into America than her father. Veda being influenced by her environment might have

caused her to lose family tradition and part of her identity. She has had time to adjust to
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American culture and be accepted in ways that Jack might never have been. With her determined

attitude she seeks to naturalize her father stating, “Tomorrow I would take my father across

another river” (242). Both literally and figuratively, as she would drive across the Bay bridge and

give her father a new life as a naturalized citizen. Having the last section of the novel be through

Veda’s point of view we can understand her thinking and compare her beliefs versus her father’s.

Veda proves to be a somewhat complex character compared to the other’s in the book.

Looking at Carl Golden’s list of archetypes, Veda represents the “regular gal”. This archetype

likes to connect with others, have a sense of belonging and fears standing out in a crowd. Veda

has a hard time when she travels to China with her boyfriend. He surprises her with a visit to her

father’s home village, and she gets to meet blood relatives of her dad. The overall trip left a sour

taste for Veda, she declared, “China was my problem. China was a bad joke and the joke was on

me” (213). Her trip revealed to her how the vices of China that her father dealt with still exist. It

is understandable why seeing these issues would make one want to dissociate with the sources of

the problem. Upon returning home she insisted, “I just wanted to hear English, I wanted to feel at

home” (217). This really shows how much she wanted to go back to America and back to what

she was familiar with. Veda had grown annoyed standing out in China, and the longing to go

back to familiarity mirrors the Regular Gal’s wish to blend in. When Veda claimed China was

the joke, we can see how she felt out of place; moreover, China is not Veda’s home, as she grew

up in the states with the culture and American upbringing. However, the Regular Gal’s weakness

is losing one’s self trying to blend in. Going back to the theme, the importance to not forget

where you came from, comes to this comparison. Despite Veda growing up in the U.S, it is

important to know how your family came to be, to understand and value the stories and
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hardships that they struggled to better one's life. Blending in is not terrible, but it takes away the

rare, exclusive parts to what makes someone different. There are ways Veda can cherish her

family’s culture and story, and balance representing her own identity.

Through this book, the reader can see how immigrating to America has its hardships. In

Veda’s case, growing up with American ideals is difficult to handle while holding onto family

history, but it is paramount to not forget where you came from. It seemed as though Veda had

assimilated to America in ways to blend herself in, such as the Regular Gal would do. Yet trying

so hard to be like everyone else takes away part of one’s identity. Although she did not like

every part of China when she visited, her father came from there and worked his way up to

support her. “Steer Toward Rock” emphasized the meaning of identity and how important family

is.

Works Cited

Ng, Fae Myenne. Steer Toward Rock. Hyperion, New York. 2008.

Golden, Carl. “The 12 Common Archetypes.” SoulCraft,

www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html.