Bone: U.S. Idealized as Place of Escape

In the first half of Bone, we hear Leon's story of how he came to the United States through Angel Island. On the west coast, for many Chinese and Japanese people, this is their story, the same goes for Irish, and European people with Ellis Island. Leon left China for a chance at a better life in America, as well as many other immigrants, they also wanted their chance to acheive the American Dream. Lei's mother has a similar story as well, coming to America with Lei's father to acheive a better life for them all. Lei's mother and Leon's stories illustrate what all immigrants have gone through and desired. People living in other countries see the U.S. as a place where dreams come true and of the middle class, a place of opportunities. However, when they arrive they find out that not all of these dreams are within their reach. In the same way Sophie's mother struggled when she came to New York, Leon and Lei's mother struggled when they arrived in San Francisco's Chinatown. A point in this book where Leon's dreams and aspirations of living in America were illustrated as coming to an end was when Lei was looking through his suitcase of papers and found all the letters of rejection it held. At this point in the book, where when Lei describes Leon she says that he never finishes anything he starts, perhaps this is why. He came to America to fufill his dreams, and rejection was the only thing that greeted him, he is dissapointed in the way his dreams transition into reality and has given up hope that his life will be what he wanted it to be. This is also represented when Lei is talking about how her mother cannot go back to China to see family and friends, because they would only see shame in her. When she left China she had a good husband, but in America he left her with a child for another woman and she then married Leon so she wouldn't carry so much shame, and then Ona killed herself. If she brought this story back to China, her family would know how much of a dissapointment her life in America has been.