Ona's silence is personally internalized and destructive. Ona's silence stands for the Chinatown communal silence. Chinatown's communal silence is tied to Chinese American immigration history. The fear of apprehension and discovery. The anxiety over disclosure and possible deportation from the United States pervades the Leong's familial relationships.
Silence operates simultaneously on the community, familial and individual levels.
Thus, Ona's silence and subsequent suicide stand for the destructive outcome of silence on disempowered individuals and groups. Gossip rejects prohibitions against speech. At one end of the spectrum, gossip and gossipers are associated with death, jealousy and malice. For Leon and Leila, being gossiped and talked about means that people are jealous. Gossip, therefore, is a response mechanism to envy.