"Coming Home Again"

Chang Rae Lee's story makes people realize of how life can be. It's about how the author's life was growing up, how his family didn't show much love towards each other. And about how his mother was so eager for him to be successful, that she sent him to boarding school. Even though it may have seemed like a good opportunity by making something out of the situation, by leading him into a sucessful path, he was going to be away from home and his family. His mother later regrets sending her son off to boarding school because she ends up finding out she's going to die soon from stomach cancer. Her illness is very ironic because growing up Lee's Mother enjoyed cooking the traditional Korean food for her family. As she cooked for her family Lee would observe and watch her carefully to learn how to make the delicious meals his mother would make throughout his childhood. The Korean food is what the symbol in this story is, everything in this story revolves around the food she would make and how much work and effort she would put in to make these meals. The purpose of this story is to make people realize that we should cherish our family more, be more direct with others. The author picked the title "Coming Home Again" simply because, he's finally back home, and he knows that he's back home for good and realizes that, thats where he belongs.

I can relate a lot to Lee and his story. Even though I come from a totally different background, of race, culture, food, even language, by me being hispanic. I do understand how it feels to have a family that doesn't show love, and share feelings. My family is a lot like this, it's not like we don't love each other, we just never say how we feel. I honestly don't remember when was the time I told my father I loved him. It's very sad and this story has made me realize that it shouldn't be like that. It's taught me how we should cherish our family more. Because you never know whats going to happen, and nobody wants to live with regret.