The theme of heritage is especially important in this section, as Lena explores the dual nature of her identity. The product of an English-Irish father and a Chinese mother, she is a combination of two cultures. Although her pale coloring makes her seem Caucasian, her eyes are unmistakably Chinese. Her nature, like her appearance, straddles two cultures. "I saw these things with my Chinese eyes, the part of me I got from my mother," she says. Like the beggar's death, there are two versions of reality here — Chinese and American. Imaginative, even horrifying visions haunt her; however, her dual vision enables her to maintain her own sanity while watching her mother slide into madness.
When Gu Ying-ying came to America, she was declared a Displaced Person because the immigration officials could not categorize her. Her name was changed to Betty St. Clair, and her birth was postdated by two years. This misclassification is a symbol for her new status: Stripped of her Chinese identity, she is, literally, a displaced person, adrift in an alien land. With the erasure of her identity, she has no place in the world. She cannot even communicate with her husband, a well-meaning but insensitive man who refuses to learn Chinese and insists that his wife learn English. When she is unable to communicate, he puts words into her mouth. In effect, he denies her the ability to communicate, and eventually, she descends into madness as a way of dealing with her isolation and loneliness.
