55 pages • 1 hour read
Ocean VuongOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 2 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Section 1 Summary
Rose once told Little Dog that memory is a choice. Little Dog lies next to his tall friend, Trevor, under a tree. They are both covered in blood from a wound on Trevor’s forehead. They sing “This Little Light of Mine” as the sun sets, and the November night grows colder. Rose waits at home, worried because Little Dog is late.
Little Dog asks Trevor to tell him a secret. Trevor asks him to go first. Little Dog tells him he is no longer afraid of dying. They laugh together.
Part 2, Section 2 Summary
Rose’s hands are hideous; they reflect her life of struggle and work in factories and nail salons. To Little Dog, a nail salon is “more than a place of work and a workshop for beauty, it is also a place where our children are raised” (79). Many Vietnamese immigrants work in nail salons, unable to find better paying work.
Little Dog is 10 years old. His mother runs a nail salon on Sundays. A wizened old woman comes in for a pedicure. Little Dog helps her into the salon chair. She has a prosthetic leg. She asks 
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By Ocean Vuong
