Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka tells a sad and realistic story of the Ogata family. With the absence of a mother and an uncaring father, the three children, Ivah, Blu, and Maisie, face insurmountable obstacles. Furthermore, various outside forces, such as sexual violence, poverty, and racism, make it even harder for them to cope with the harsh society. In spite of these hardships, it is the mother's invisible presence that keeps the three children together and guides them, although it also contributes to the unintended indifference of father, and the children's vulnerability of societal attacks.

Eleanor, "the mother", is often presented in the story even though she is dead, in terms of her ideas and family's memory of her. The children's effort to include their mother in family events and not forgetting what she has said to them show how naturally they think of their mother's...