Searching for Sylvie Lee

“How did a brilliant creature like Sylvie arise from such mundane stock as our Ma and Pa?”

This passage speaks to Sylvie’s characterization as well as to the theme of Flawed and Incomplete Perspective. In one breath, Amy both underestimates the resourcefulness and strength of her parents and fails to see the inner turmoil that her sister faces. Amy thinks that Sylvie is infallible, having gotten the brains and the beauty between the two of them. Although she loves her sister, Amy struggles with envy.

“I was delighted to have a boyfriend with knowledge unfathomable to Ma and Pa.”

This quotation speaks to Sylvie’s characterization. It shows how she wants to enter a world not open to her immigrant parents. Caught between multiple cultures, Sylvie becomes focused on being as successful as possible in the United States. She was drawn to Jim’s wealth and his cultural knowledge in part because, at that time, she wanted so badly to escape the “ugly” young girl from a poor neighborhood that she had always seen herself as.

“She would laugh or commiserate and I’d always say ‘Sylvie, we tell each other everything, right? Right?’ And she’d answer, ‘Right.’ But now I’m beginning to realize that maybe I’ve always been the only one doing the telling.”

This passage speaks to Amy’s slow process of discovery in the novel, reflecting the risk of an isolated perspective. Although Amy thinks that she knows Sylvie better than anyone else, she comes to understand that nothing in her family is the way that it seems.