Thien uses houses as both a symbol and a motif. She constructs character development through houses, creating conflict and tension to symbolize immigration, alienation, family loss, and separation. They are also used as sources of trauma and connection. The prevalence of houses as a symbol indicates the complexity of identity and belonging.

In the story “Simple Recipes,” the house is used to show the differences between the first- and second-generation characters when the narrator discusses how they are kept and cleaned and lit. Houses are structures that contain trauma both from the immigrant perspective and the outsider perspective. A house is not always a warm place, despite the positive meaning attached to the word “home.” A house is a container for the struggle that immigrants have in identifying home.

Another example of the house as motif occurs in “Four Days from Oregon.” Here there are two houses; the one the family lives in before Irene takes the girls and leaves with Tom, and the new one they share with Tom. In the interim, their house is represented by the itinerant tent. In the first house, things are broken, doors squeak. The house takes a beating from Irene, who occasionally throws dishes and plates around, shattering them and breaking windows and doors.