ow everyone in this house speaks! . . . I cannot understand that barbaric speech. . . . Do not talk to me unless you are prepared to speak English.
. . . Young man, you are now an American. You are very cute, but you cannot get by in this world by looking endearingly at people. You must give up your past habits and learn new ones (Lee 58).
Kai finds himself forced to deal with America and its mysteries and bigotries as never before: "American culture was a mystery, the evolving black subculture of the Panhandle was an enigma, and both overlapped across my struggling mind like a galloping herd of octopuses" (Lee 61).
Not only does Kai have a sense of humor, he also has an intelligence and a wisdom beyond his years. He recognizes, for example, how Edna is hurting herself as much as or more than she is hurting him with her prejudice:
In making our family a victim of her cultural chauvinism, she administered a self-inflicted wound and denied herself the love and affection that could have been the sustenance of her life" (Lee 69).
Gradually, Kai develops physically, as we
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