Rose’s Client Character Analysis

A customer in the nail salon where Rose works as a manicurist. Rose’s client is about 70 years old, and she comes to Rose looking for a pedicure. Before the woman puts her feet into the heated foot spa, she reaches down and detaches a prosthetic leg from just below her knee. Rose meticulously clips and paints the woman’s nails, and then she massages her calf. When she is finished, the woman gestures to her missing leg. “Would you mind,” she says. “I can still feel it down there. It’s silly, but I can.” Rose silently massages the woman’s invisible leg, and the woman gives her a hundred-dollar bill. Rose’s client and her “phantom limb” illustrate the power of memory, which, Vuong argues, remains even when everything else is gone.