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
While Kai Ying prepares Tao for his trip to the hospital, Wei finds himself walking along the path to Song’s rooms, almost without realizing it. They used to spend a lot of time together, reminiscing about Liang and the old days, but Wei has avoided Song since Sheng’s arrest. He’s certain that she will uncover the secret of the letter and reveal his shame. But although he doesn’t know what to say, he feels an urgent need to talk to her again.
As Kai Ying travels across the city, Wei sets out on a much shorter, but equally important, journey across the villa’s courtyard. His guilt has kept him away; finding himself on the path to Song’s apartment implies that he’s perhaps getting closer to working up the courage to admit his mistakes and to begin to atone for them.
Themes
Song sits in the garden, working. She teases Wei about his enduring unwillingness to get his hands dirty helping her out, and she then invites him inside her apartment for tea. She graciously acts as if no time has passed at all, although she has noticed that Wei has been avoiding her. Being with Song always reminds Wei of Liang, since the two were inseparable. After Liang’s death, Song was the only woman of their age whom he didn’t resent for being alive still. Fretting over how ill and frail he knows he looks, especially in contrast to Song’s vitality, Wei follows her inside.
Song teases Wei like an intimate member of his family because she is one. The book suggests that a true family forms wherever people love and support one another through the trials of life. Song fits this description, even though she has no legal or biological ties to anyone else in the villa. The Lee family becomes stronger and more resilient as it grows through bonds of friendship, as well as through marriage and having children.
Themes
Song pours a cup for tea for Wei. They discuss Tao’s recovery. Song feels certain that all will be well for the boy, and for Sheng. Wei wants to know how she can be so sure, and he tries to unburden himself of his guilt. But he doesn’t get farther than saying he’s made a terrible mistake before his fear overwhelms him and he freezes.
Song had a difficult life long before the Communist takeover, so she has a different perspective on suffering than Wei, whose sheltered life and caring family insulated him from trouble until quite recently. She understands that trials and tribulations pass and that they can leave people stronger and wiser for having endured them. Wei struggles to believe Song, even though he wants to, highlighting that he’s at the beginning of his journey.
Themes
