May in Real Americans: Character Analysis of the Matriarch and Pioneering Geneticist
Overview: The Matriarch Who Tried to Rewrite Fate
May is the novel's quiet engine: a Chinese immigrant who becomes a pioneering geneticist, a mother who makes an unforgivable choice, and an elderly woman seeking redemption in her final years. Her secret gene therapy—administered without consent to her daughter Lily and to Otto Maier's son Thomas—shapes the destinies of three generations. She is both a victim of history and an agent of harm, a woman who believed she could improve her children's lives by controlling their biology. Her story raises urgent questions about genetic engineering and the ethics of choosing a child's traits, immigrant identity and assimilation, and the burden of hidden truths.
Plot Role Across Timelines
May appears in three distinct timeframes. In 1966 Beijing, she is a young woman who smashes a glass case to steal an ancient lotus seed, an act that foreshadows her lifelong desire to seize control of fate. In the mid-20th century, she emigrates to America, becomes a geneticist, and secretly experiments on her own daughter and Otto's son. In 2030, she is an elderly woman living in a San Francisco Chinatown apartment, following her grandson Nick and hoping he will bring Lily to see her. Her actions in the past reverberate through the present: Lily's estrangement, Nick's existence, and the ethical questions that haunt the novel's ending.
Motivations and Character Traits
May is driven by a combination of ambition, trauma, and a fierce, misplaced love. Her childhood in a Yangtze River village was marked by cruelty—her father and brothers treated her harshly, and she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. These experiences instilled in her a desperate need to escape and to control her own destiny. She studies biology, fascinated by the invisible codes that shape who we become. Her ambition is not merely personal; she wants to give her daughter a better life than she had.
Yet her methods are deeply flawed. She is secretive, making unilateral decisions about her children's bodies without their knowledge or consent. She tells no one about her imprinting factor discovery, not even her husband Charles. She secretly has her tubes tied after Lily's birth. She and Otto treat Lily and Thomas with a gene therapy designed to suppress one parent's genetic contribution, believing it will spare them inherited sadness or limitations. Her motivation is to “guide fate,” but she fails to see the ethical violation in doing so.
Her traits—determination, intelligence, and a willingness to act alone—are shown through her actions. She works late nights in the lab, isolates herself from colleagues, and keeps her research hidden. She is also capable of deep love, as seen in her devotion to Lily as an infant, but that love becomes distorted by her belief that she knows what is best.
Chronological Arc: From Village to San Francisco
May's life is a series of escapes and reinventions. In her village, she endures poverty and abuse, but a painter named Kong Tee brings her books and encourages her ambitions. She studies for the entrance exam to Peking University and is accepted in 1965. In Beijing, she witnesses the Cultural Revolution and steals the lotus seed. She later flees to Hong Kong with a man named Wen, posing as a married couple. They emigrate to America in 1974, where she becomes “May” and he becomes “Charles.”
In America, she works at a laboratory, impresses donors with her vision for genetics, and eventually moves to Florida. There she develops her gene therapy and secretly treats Lily and Thomas. After Thomas's suicide, she falls into depression. Lily later marries Otto's son Matthew, and when Lily struggles to conceive, May uses IVF and germline editing to create Nick, emphasizing Matthew's genes. Lily discovers the truth and leaves with Nick, cutting off contact.
In 2030, May is an elderly woman collecting bottles and cans, following Nick to a drugstore. She hopes he will understand her and reach Lily. Her arc is one of decline and regret, but also of a fragile attempt at reconciliation.
Key Relationships
With Charles (Wen): Their marriage is pragmatic, born of a need to escape. May keeps her scientific work and her past from him. She secretly has her tubes tied, and she never tells him about the gene therapy. Charles is a good father to Lily, but May's secrets create an emotional distance.
With Otto Maier: Otto is her collaborator and confidant. After Naomi's suicide, Otto worries about his children inheriting her sadness. May shares her imprinting factor discovery with him, and together they treat Lily and Thomas. Their partnership is built on shared ambition and a belief that they can improve their children's lives. But the consequences are devastating: Thomas dies by suicide, and Lily becomes estranged.
With Lily: May's relationship with her daughter is the novel's emotional core. She loves Lily fiercely, but her love is expressed through control. She treats Lily without consent, and when Lily discovers the truth, she feels betrayed. Lily leaves with Nick and refuses to see May for years. In her final years, May seeks reconciliation, but Lily remains distant until Nick intervenes.
With Nick: Nick is the grandson who discovers May's secret. He initially feels pity rather than anger when he meets her. May hopes Nick will understand her and bring Lily to her. Their relationship is a bridge between generations, and Nick's own work in genetic therapies forces him to confront the ethics of his grandmother's choices.
Key Decisions and Their Consequences
May's most consequential decision is to secretly treat Lily and Thomas with gene therapy. She believes she is giving them better lives, but the therapy has unintended effects. Thomas, who was meant to take after Otto rather than his depressed mother, still dies by suicide at nineteen. Lily grows up to be “so unlike me, she was practically a stranger,” as May reflects. The treatment also compromises Lily's ability to conceive naturally, leading to the IVF that creates Nick.
Another key decision is to create Nick with germline editing, emphasizing Matthew's genes. This gives Nick his father's appearance and, perhaps, his temperament. But it also means Nick is a product of his grandmother's manipulation, a fact that haunts him. When Nick learns the truth, he feels that his mother made a decision for him, just as May did for Lily.
May's decision to keep secrets—from Charles, from Lily, from everyone—leads to the family's fragmentation. The family secrets and the burden of hidden truths theme is central to her character.
Themes and Symbolism
May embodies the novel's exploration of time, memory, and the desire to control time. The lotus seed she steals is a symbol of her wish to control fate. She later realizes that she wished for time, not for Ping, and that this wish has shaped her life. Her ability to “stop” time—a phenomenon she experiences in Hong Kong and later in the lab—reflects her obsession with controlling the uncontrollable.
She also represents the immigrant experience and the pressure to assimilate. She changes her name, learns to speak without an accent, and asserts that she wants to be American. Yet she remains an outsider, haunted by her past. Her story connects to immigrant identity and assimilation and the search for identity and belonging across generations.
Five Questions About May, Answered
1. Why did May treat Lily and Thomas without their consent?
May believed she was protecting them from inherited suffering. She wanted to suppress the genes that might cause depression or other traits she deemed undesirable. She saw it as a way to give them a better life, but she failed to consider their autonomy. Her actions were a violation of their bodily integrity, and the consequences were tragic.
2. What is the significance of the lotus seed?
The lotus seed represents May's wish to control her destiny. She steals it during the Cultural Revolution, and later reflects that it granted her wish for time. The seed is a symbol of her desire to manipulate fate, which she later does through genetic engineering. It also connects to the novel's themes of time and memory.
3. How does May's past influence her decisions?
Her childhood trauma—abuse, poverty, and the Cultural Revolution—made her desperate to escape and to create a better life. She saw genetics as a way to transcend the limitations of her own past. Her fear of vulnerability and her need for control stem from these early experiences.
4. What does May's relationship with Nick reveal about her?
May's relationship with Nick shows her capacity for tenderness and her desire for redemption. She follows him, cares for him, and hopes he will understand her. Nick's pity for her suggests that she is not entirely villainous, but a broken woman who made terrible choices. Their connection also highlights the generational impact of her actions.
5. What is May's ultimate regret?
May's ultimate regret is that she made decisions for someone else. In her final years, she reflects that it was a mistake to choose for another person. She realizes that her attempt to control her children's futures was a profound error, and she seeks reconciliation with Lily before she dies.
May is a tragic figure—a brilliant scientist whose love for her family became a form of control. Her story is a cautionary tale about the ethics of genetic engineering and the limits of parental ambition. For further exploration, see the questions and answers page.