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
Kai Ying feels the change of seasons in the air and is grateful to see the end of a difficult summer. The Moon Festival is tomorrow night, and she hastens toward the market thinking of some extra money she’s spent months saving to buy an expensive box of Tao’s favorite mooncakes. She hopes the Party hasn’t abolished this small pleasure, too.
Tao’s fall destroyed what little sense of normalcy and stability Kai Ying had been able to maintain after Sheng’s arrest, and she’s eager to move on with Tao home. Yet, the world provides constant reminders of the ways the Communist Party has destroyed the life she used to live, from rising costs to the increasing rarity of life’s small pleasures.
Themes
Away from the villa, Kai Ying can let her guard down and consider the things she refuses to contemplate at home. Maybe Tao will be permanently disabled. Wei seems to be losing energy and emotional strength. His reticence reminds her of when she first married Sheng. Wei was distant and aloof then, too, and she constantly worried that he was disappointed in Sheng for choosing her instead of a better educated, wealthier girl. When he finally introduced her as his daughter-in-law, a year into her marriage, she felt proud. But she also always suspected that Wei only accepted her as a necessity when it became clear that Liang was dying. She thinks they eventually arrived at a place of mutual respect, but she’s felt that slipping since Sheng’s arrest.
Importantly, Kai Ying must leave the villa—must go on a journey, even if it’s just a short one to the market—to gain the insights necessary to help her grow. Her memories of the early months of her marriage point to how Wei has always held himself apart from the family, and how he has been able to get away with it because of others’ willingness to accept responsibility for his actions. This selfishness leaves Kai Ying vulnerable and exhausted as she tries to support Wei with her own limited emotional resources. Of course, readers already know that Wei feels angry and disappointed in himself, not in her. But in his inability to communicate this, he alienates Kai Ying further.
Themes
