55 pages • 1 hour read
Ruthanne Lum McCunnThousand Pieces of Gold
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaPart 6-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 6: “1922-1923” - Part 7: “1933”
Part 6, Chapter 34 Summary
A picture of an older woman wearing a white dress precedes this chapter.
Polly hears a schoolgirl crying with her brother and goes to comfort the girl. While she recognizes the children as Johnny and Gay Cary, neither child recognizes her, which wounds her since she had taken care of most of the children on Warrens. Now many children board with people in Warrens while their parents are away working during the school year. Gay is upset that she has to board with the school teacher because the woman is mean. The children go off to school, but Polly realizes that she could let Gay board with her in her new rented cabin in town.
Once Gay moves in, Polly’s home is filled with children and laughter. However, Polly dreads the day when Gay will go home. She opens up the tin that Charlie saved from the fire to see her marriage certificate, certificate of residence, and the mining claim. She decides she will go visit Bertha and get new glasses when Gay goes home at the end of the school year.
Part 6, Chapter 35 Summary
Polly and Bertha work in Bertha’s kitchen and reminisce about their younger years. Polly tells Bertha about all the things she’s seen on her way to visit her, and then the two decide to go see the train in town, since Polly has never seen one.
On the train, Polly sees the engine cab and then reflects on the fact that many of the Chinese men in Warrens built the train tracks. Polly tells Bertha that she plans to go to Boise next.
While in Boise, Polly overheard two Chinese men discussing what home is. The older Chinese man wants his nephew to return to China, but the nephew views the United States as his home. Polly realizes she has no clue where she belongs, until suddenly she is overcome with homesickness and knows where she should go.
Part 6, Chapter 36 Summary
Polly returns to Polly’s Place and puts out a white handkerchief to alert Pete that she’s back. She explains that Polly’s Place is her and Charlie’s home, and she wants to return. She asks Pete to help her build a small home and farm and, in return, she will give him the claim when she dies. He agrees to help her.
Part 7, Chapter 37 Summary
An image of a woman sitting beside a cabin precedes this chapter.
After fishing, Polly returns to the cabin that Shepp and Pete built for her. After calling Shepp on the telephone, she goes out to her garden, where she passes out. When Polly comes to, she sees a sheriff standing over her. She tells him she has papers to prove her residence, and he grabs her arm.
Part 7, Chapter 38 Summary
Polly wakes up in the County Hospital in Grangerville. She is told that Pete and Shepp found her and took her to a local mine, which arranged to bring her to town. As the nurse tells her about all the people who have come to visit her, she falls back asleep.
Polly realizes she’s in a hospital and doesn’t want to die there, so she asks for her shoes. She is told she cannot walk, but her shoes are laid out for her. Bertha comes to visit her, and Polly makes her promise to find Pete and Shepp when she dies so that they can bury her next to Charlie.
Epilogue Summary
Polly died on November 6, 1933, in the County Hospital. Because of the high amount of snow, no one was able to find Shepp or Pete, and she was buried in the County Hospital’s cemetery.
Eventually, an owner of Polly’s Place went to work restoring Polly’s cabin, and he was eventually able to bring her remains back to the ranch. He nominated the ranch to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was in 1987, due to Polly being “the foremost pioneer on the rugged Salmon River” (206). Polly is now buried near her cabin, while Charlie is buried across the river.
Part 6-Epilogue Analysis
In this final section, Polly experiences delayed motherhood when she takes in Gay as a boarder. Her time with the child decreases her deep grief over losing Charlie and her home: “With the children, Polly found even the most ordinary tasks took on new color and life” (189). However, she knows that this joy will end, too, leading her to reflect on what to do with her life:
Abruptly, she rose and padded across the cabin to the stove, opened the damper and draft, and shook the grate. The coals flashed sparks which, shiny as false gold, crumbled into ash. Like her few fleeting months with the child, Polly thought as she built a new fire (190).
Notably, the color gold reappears; however, it is “false gold,” which implies that being a mother is not what Polly is supposed to do. In this moment, she is following stereotypical gender roles instead of subverting Gender Expectations and the Quest for Agency. Regardless, Polly must eventually leave Warrens and her maternal role in order to protect her identity and agency.
Polly continues to struggle with The Shortcomings of the American Dream in this section of the novel but does appear to come to a resolution after overhearing two Chinese men talk about the concept of home. At first, Polly is puzzled by the idea: “‘And where is my home?’ Polly had whispered. Not in China, a faded memory. Or Warrens. Or Grangeville. Or Boise. Then where” (195). However, she is overcome with a strong sense of belonging after meditating on the subject of home: “All at once, a wave of homesickness engulfed Polly, sweeping away doubts and fears in a crest of longing. She knew where she belonged” (195). Polly realizes she belongs in Salmon Canyon. Her beloved Charlie is buried there, and the piece of real estate she owns reminds her of her agency, identity, and belonging.
When Polly is taken to the hospital, she briefly worries that the sheriff is arresting her because she is an Asian woman. Without any context, this interaction appears to be extremely violent and scary. However, it is later revealed that the sheriff was genuinely just trying to help Polly after she fainted. Polly’s reaction and assumption that she is being arrested because of her race shows how real and constant the threat of deportation and discrimination was for Asian people at the time.
When Polly is about to die, she requests that her shoes be placed at the end of her bed so that she can put them on to leave. Polly’s feet serve as a recurring motif that symbolizes her fierce independence and agency. Polly doesn’t want to die in the hospital nor does she want to be taken care of. She wants to die on her own terms and in her own way. While she ultimately isn’t given the opportunity to die the way she would like, her request for her shoes shows how she maintained her quest for independence until the end of her life.
