What she sees amazes her. Her mother is not the monster that she imagined. Rather, the old woman seems innocent and childlike. Waverly is pulled apart by her contradictory emotions and perceptions. Recall that the title of this story is "Four Directions." Waverly has difficulty telling appearance from reality because she is pulled in different directions by her own preconceptions, misconceptions, and memories of the past. She is pulled in two directions by her Chinese heritage and American ways. Her mother realizes this dilemma: ". . . if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind," she says. Her mother has been waiting for Waverly to let her in, to accept her Chinese heritage so that she can accept Waverly's Chinese-American future, symbolized by Waverly's daughter, Shoshana. At the end of the chapter, Waverly finally realizes this truth. She imagines what it might be like to travel back to China with her mother, to "move West to reach East."
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