Summary

This final story in "The Fortunes," Part 4: Pearl - Disorientation is told in the third person limited perspective in the present tense. The events of this story are told linearly, not as if the main character is reflecting on them at a later point. The quote that opens the story is from Mao Zedong: "The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning...The world belongs to you. China's future belongs to you" (207).

The story opens in the early morning of "Gotcha Day!", the day a group of American foster parents will meet their adoptive Chinese daughters. The story's hero, John Smith, is having trouble sleeping. His wife...