The Fresh Off The Boat book was probably
one of my favorite books that we had to read over the semester. I could really
picture myself in the book as I was reading it, and I really enjoyed it. The
Fresh Off The Boat was based upon the life of a Chinese boy named Eddie Huang
who experienced many events throughout the entire book. Eddie hated his
parents, because they always told him what was best for him. As he was growing
up Eddie felt he didn’t fit in the American lifestyle, and everyone picked on
him, because he was different. “Mrs. Huang, your son was out of control today
and severely injured another student.”[1]
While growing up Eddie began to get in
trouble numerous amounts of times, and which forced him to move around to
different schools, because of his behavior. Music was Eddie Huang’s inspiration
and he felt that it was his key to escape the outside world. “We listened to
hip-hop because there wasn’t anything else that welcomed us in, made us feel at
home.”[2] He
would beat up anybody that made fun of him, because his father said to stand up
for himself and not let anyone run all over him. Eddie hung around the wrong
crowd he smoked, drank, and stole from others. “Before we left, we all got high
hitting the bong we made out a plastic Mountain Dew bottle.”[3]
He wanted the best out of life like
expensive shoes, clothes, and cars. Even though his parents didn’t help him buy
the car he wanted his father just bought a car in front of his face. Occasionally
Eddie and his friends would get in trouble with the law an there was serious
consequences that they had to face. Eddie’s father believed that Eddie would
never get into ESPN, because of the way he looked. “You have shaved head,
tattoo, crazy sneakers, you think ESPN putting you on TV.”[4] In
college he sold drugs, because he believed he was good at and he loved the
money.
I believe that Eddie didn’t really know
what he wanted to be in life once he grew up. He experienced many things that
changed the way he saw things that meant to him. His mother, and father always
argued with each other and it got on Eddie’s nerves. He didn’t play around when
people owed him money from the drugs he sold to other people. “This fool didn’t
have fifty dollars, but he was running around with a gold and silver link Tag
Heuer it was worth more than three thousand.”[5] He
thought he had it made when he was making money and hanging out with people who
stood up for him.
Eddie Huang went to law school, but
later realized that what he was doing wasn’t something that he would do
forever. He figured he would make a list of the things he would accomplish in
life. Eddie did a bit of stand-up comedy, and later figured that it wasn’t the
life he wanted to live. He had a friend who sold shoes to other people, and
Eddie thought it would be good for business to do the same thing. “Jae taught
me his technique but made me agree not to poach his stores.”[6]
Eddie later wanted to open up his own restaurant, but his parents disapproved of
his decision. They believed that he was going through away his career, and
Eddie Huang didn’t listen to his parents. He went with his own heart and he
felt that it was the right place to be for him. “I wanted Baohaus to be a place
the neighborhood embraced.”[7]
What I got from the book was that Eddie
Huang didn’t take anything serious from anybody. He went with his own thoughts,
and felt that he could accomplish anything. This book really got me to think
clearly of what he was going through. In the end he went with what he loved to
do and that was cooking. He met several people of that were really close to him,
and some that were not so good. Consequences that cost him to think about what
he had done was very wrong.
[1] Eddie, Huang, Fresh Off The Boat: A Memoir. (New York:
Spiegel & Grau, 2013), 33.
[2] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 60.
[3] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 103.
[4] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 148.
[5] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 168.
[6] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 217.
[7] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 258.
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