Amiya's Passages

Passage 1:
"If people lived in houses with no walls between rooms there would have to be a lot of rules. I don't think you would like it. You can't have no walls and also have everyone in touch with their feelings. People would have to have manners. They would have to have a public face and a private face.'... 'I was naive...This is why you don't want to be a freethinker. You've had enough of being an original." (208)

1) What does it mean in Seth's terms to be a "freethinker"?
2) Is this a way of Seth telling Mona that she shouldn't try to be independent by herself, that she shouldn't follow his ways for living?

Passage 2:
"How liberating to be mean! All her life she has been funny; she has tried too to be sweet. Never has she been powerful. She could be Popeye, popping open spinach cans with her bare hands. Who needs a can opener? Mona has not started this deadly game, but now that she understands there can be victory between people, she is bent on avoiding defeat. She has always thought fear a hot emotion; now she knows it to be cool. Now she knows how it turns into vengeance. She is unmovable." (223)

1) Is Mona so absorbed in this American culture that she actually believes she can do anything now?
2) Do you think that Mona's behavior--saying she now holds the power and can be victorious--is something her parents were afraid of when coming to America?
3) Do you think that Mona is taking advantage of her liberty and will use it in the future to disconnect with her family, her Chinese background, and the people she calls her friends?