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
The courtyard gate slams open, and Kai Ying starts toward the kitchen door, wondering if it was the wind or a patient. When she hears a cry, she rushes outside to find the girl from the hospital, Suyin, doubled over in pain near the kapok tree. Kai Ying tries to lead the girl inside, but Suyin’s legs buckle under her, and she falls to the wet ground. Kai Ying tries to protect Suyin from the rain as Song goes to fetch Wei. Kai Ying has never delivered a baby and she worries about all the things that could go wrong with Suyin’s labor. But hasn’t lost a patient yet and isn’t about to start. While they wait, Suyin tells Kai Ying her name.
The novel just implied that Kai Ying became the daughter Song never had, and Song in turn becomes a surrogate mother for Kai Ying after she married Sheng. No sooner has Song finished considering their mutual adoption than Suyin arrives, in desperate need of a mother of her own. Kai Ying instinctively feels driven to protect and care for the girl, showing her readiness to take on the role of adoptive mother herself.
Themes
