Summary

Part 4 is titled “Assimilation,” and subtitled “on shame, past selves, and chameleon life” (267).

As Part 4 and its first chapter begin, the author returns to the point in her life at which she ended Chapter 1 of Part 3. This is the moment at which she became aware of Harvard University, and of the potential for her going there becoming part of her moving beyond her identity as a refugee. She writes about becoming aware of how competitive it was to get into Harvard, and that as part of her training to get into Harvard, she says, she decided to become a champion at Tae Kwon Do. She describes her obsessive training and dieting, the intensity of her competitive nature, and her determination to prove herself better than the mostly white Americans who, to her, seemed to have all their opportunities handed to them. Along the...