"I was locked into living Mah's and Leon's lives for them"(Ng, 109). Leila has felt obligated to stay in San Francisco and follow the path her parents have led and somewhat forced her to undertake. This life has been seen as easier to Leila, there at times where she wants to escape and pursue an "American Dream" but she is too tied to the Chinese traditions of family commitment "for a moment I was tempted to fall back into the easiness of being Mah's daughter, of letting her be my whole life"(NG, 190) Bearing her family's issues Leila is able to represent the struggling Asian American identity in the United States due to her past being too culturally heavy with Chinese tradition in regards to Mah's matriarchal issues and Leon's patriarchal issues. .
Ng also represents Leila, as an individual who has is seemingly able to assimilate into American Culture and capitalist system but comes with the struggle of bearing her family's burdens, their incapability of leaving their Chinese heritage behind in order to pursuit their American Dream. Her process of Americanization is different from her families and so is the process of the construction of her identity based on the ideals of both "American" and "Chinese" cultures. Leila's assimilation is ultimately disturbed in the sense that she has to negotiate between her family member's assimilation and her own. Leila is constantly comforting her stepfather Leon who is in a constant economic struggle of maintaining a good job in order to provide for his family which proves ultimately that attaining this elusive "American Dream" is impossible while remaining in a Chinese cultural mindset. He refuses to let go his "Chineseness", which results in the closing of his family laundry, constant shipping out overseas, and numerous unmanageable jobs, proving his failure to attain the "dream".
