Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Hundred Flowers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Redemption
Journeys and Growth
Suffering, Strength, and Resilience
Home and Family
The Promises and Failures of Communism
Summary
Analysis
That night, Kai Ying stands in the kitchen preparing the ingredients for dinner, her hands moving automatically as her mind races. She doesn’t know how she can pretend that nothing has changed when everything has. She now recognizes the guilt that’s been slowly consuming Wei over the past year. She understands why Sheng took Wei’s place to protect his father, but she cannot forgive Wei’s dishonesty, and she doesn’t know how she will be able to forgive a man whose pride led him to betray his family.
Since Sheng’s arrest, Kai Ying has tried to pretend things are normal to keep her family afloat. In the wake of Wei’s confession, she fears she can no longer maintain this illusion. Still, the novel has already suggested that she has been maintaining an illusion: all is not well with the family. Wei’s confession forces Kai Ying to accept that not all is well, and it will hopefully open her and the family up to healing.
Themes
