Rose says." I stayed in bed for three days." She stayed in bed this long because she was making a decision. She always seems confused and sometimes she thinks really deep.
Rose is responsible. She takes care of her four brothers. She is responsible for whatever they do. Rose says, "I must. Because they were my brothers. My sisters had once taken care of me, how else could I learn responsibility? How else could I appreciate what my parents had done for me?" That quote proves that she can take on the responsibility.
Rose as well as her mother An, is a strong and brave lady. When Rose and Ted are going out, Ted's mom didn't want them to be together but they ran off and got married anyway. On page 118 it has what Ted's mother says to Rose. She says that Ted has to concentrate on his studies and it would be years until he could even think about marriage.
Rose learns from her mother without knowing not only how to be strong but also to always have hope for the future.
2. Both June and Rose's mothers told their daughters many stories that helped the girls from their character as young women.
June learned from her mother that she had difficulty staying focused. The following quote supports this idea: "The elements were from my mother's own version of organic chemistry. Each person is made of five elements, she told me. Too much fire and you had a bad temper . Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own . Too much water and you flowed in too many directions, like myself, for having started half a degree in biology, then half a degree in art, and then finished neither when I went off to work for a small ad agency as a secretary, later becoming a copywriter.".
Also June's mother always told June that she could be anything she wanted however, when June was not a prodigy on the piano or a beautiful "Chinese Shirley Temple" June decided she would no longer try to please her mother but would be her own person.
