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
Song holds the baby, afraid to put her down lest she wake up. She hasn’t held a baby since Tao, and it feels bittersweet. She never had children of her own. She was pregnant once, but Old Hing punched her in the stomach, leading to a miscarriage at six months. She felt guilty for a long time, believing that she could have done more to protect her baby, a girl. But Song consoled herself with the thought that she would never have to endure having Hing as a father. Suyin wakes up, breaking Song’s reverie. Song introduces herself. Suyin asks if she had a girl or a boy. Song says the baby is a girl, placing the baby in Suyin’s arms. When the baby begins to fret, Suyin struggles to comfort her and begs Song to take the infant back. Song does, thinking how much Suyin still has to learn about becoming a mother.
Although Song never had her own children, she has been a mother of sorts, filling in parts of Liang’s role after her death. Her time at the villa thus redeems some of the pain and suffering of her past; it gives her the loving and supportive family that her own parents and Old Hing denied her. And the story of her miscarriage suggests that, with love, support, and time, people can survive the painful things that happen in their life and also can find happiness and peace. In this moment, Song’s contentedness holds out a promise that Suyin may also find a place in the Lee family and a stable, happy life for herself.
Themes
