Casey

Casey is the twelve-year-old protagonist and narrator of the novel. She is sent to live first with her Uncle Phil and then with her grandmother Paw-Paw after her father, Barney, is hospitalized following a mugging outside the bookie's office. When Casey is sent to live with her grandmother, Paw-Paw, she doesn't know anything about her Chinese culture, or her family's personal history, and she doesn't want to know. She associates herself with being strictly American, and doesn't recognize how similar she is to the Chinese people she sees on the streets in Chinatown. Through her relationship with Paw-Paw, however, Casey begins to grow and her interest in Chinese culture matures, particularly after she hears the story behind the owl necklace Paw-Paw always wears, and how it relates back to Casey's own feelings of isolation and loneliness living in Chinatown. After hearing this story, Casey sets out to learn...