She was hapa, half, incomplete. Half a cookie; who would want that? And eventually she learned a valuable lesson: she learned not to hope.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Ruth's main journey throughout the novel is to come to an acceptance of who she is. She is rejected at times because she is Japanese, and she is rejected at other times because she is not Japanese enough. She learns to understand her Japanese culture because she is raised by a Japanese family, but she spends the latter half of her life learning to understand and incorporate her Hawaiian roots into her idea of self. She finally accomplishes this at the end of the novel after both of her mothers are dead.

Her father. Her mother. She had a father and a mother! It was a source of wonder and delight to her. She would have to work extra hard at mastering the chopsticks and pronouncing...
-- Narrator (Chapter 3)