Relationship between the characters

Lara’s relationship with her father

Your exam assignment asks you to focus on the relationship between the characters in Mai Nardone's story “Only You Farang Are So Easy to Come and Leave”.

Much of Lara’s character is shaped by her relationship with her father. For example, Lara herself describes her attitude in the following way: “These were the things I would want to piece together after he left. I needed some semblance of his order, the way my life had come to orbit his.” (ll. 116-117)

Lara is closer to her father and more concerned about what he does. This is why she follows him and becomes curious about the man’s whereabouts: “I skipped the next English class to follow Dad downtown…” (l. 47); “I had started to wonder about his disappearances” (l. 53). Later, the fact that her father is her favourite parent is suggested by the fact that she wants to go to the US with him, with or without her mother (ll. 66-68). When the father makes the decision to leave Thailand, she tries to convince him to stay: “ ‘We need you here more than we need money. Other jobs will come,’ I said.” (l. 107)

Lara is hurt by her father leaving and feels abandoned, so she starts blaming him as well. This is why when she goes to the US, she is critical of him: “I waited for him to invite me to stay in the States so I could tell him what I thought of him: just another foreigner passing through, a white man with minor wives, an imperialist, a cultural bigot…” (ll. 151-152)

Lara secretly wants her fa...