Girl in Translation No. 2

Dear Dad,
     Ma and I have been in America for about 3 months now. Sometimes it's hard to be in a new place without the person you love by your side. I hope you're doing well. Ma and I have been working in Aunt Paula's factory and we've been rushing to get skirts done the past few nights. Ma seems so weak and fragile now. I think if you push her limit a little more, she might break. Ma's always tired now and she doesn't seem to care for me as much, but I still know that Ma loves me a lot. Work is important, which is what Ma is concentrated on right now.
     Aunt Paula was generous enough to bring Ma and I to America. I feel grateful and humble to be in America. Mei Mei, my best friend back in China, seemed like she envied me when I told her I was coming in America. I was the top student back in China, but now I feel like I am not doing as great as I did in China. When Ma got her first payment from the sweat shop, Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob made us pay for the plane tickets, the visas, the rent, water, gas, and electricity bill right away. It was unfair, but Ma couldn't fight back because Aunt Paula provided her with the job. If Ma fought back, then there would have been a big agrument  and Aunt Paula could've fired Ma.
     Pa, I don't remember you very well. You're a dull memory that is lacking rememberance. I know that if you were here with Ma and I, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble with Aunt Paula. I miss very much. I wish I got to know who you were as a person and what you were like. Ma misses you.
          Sincerely,
               Kimberly


     I wrote this letter to Kim's dad because she mentions him alot. She says how if her father was here, she would be living a far better life than she if living now. Although she mentions her dad a lot, she doesn't really go  into detail about how her dad looked and all that type of stuff because she doesn't really remember. In this letter I touched on how Kim's mom is always tired. To me, Kim's mom is like a fragile vase. You place it on the table and you have to be careful not to push the table to hard, cause if you do push the table too hard the vase shatters into small broken pieces. Kim's mom is weak, but refuses to give up because she hopes for a better future for both Kim and her.
    The time period in this book was when all these immigrants were coming to America. Knowing that Kim and her mom were immigrants coming to America, they lived in a neighborhood that didn't fit their needs. They come to America only to find out that they were going to live in a condemned apartment. It breaks my heart because Kim's mom had even asked Aunt Paula if they could move into on to Uncle Bob's buildings, but time after time Kim's aunt puts it off. It breaks my heart to see how selfish Aunt Paula is. I mean to me, family comes before anything in life. They're the people who make you, raise you up, take care of you and so on.  I assume that Aunt Paula knows the conditions that they are living under. Their house is roach and rat infested and doesn't have heat. Kim and her mom are basically living in poverty. Yet, Aunt Paula, the closest person that they know in America doesn't help them at all with the troubles that they come along. It sickens me that Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob just sit there and watch.