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
When Song hears a knock on her door, she opens it to find Suyin. Suyin and Kai Ying are looking for Tao, and Suyin wants to know if Song has seen him. Song feels a stab of worry. Then she hears voices in the courtyard. Assuming Kai Ying has found Tao, she and Suyin go outside to find Kai Ying holding a telegram from Wei. As they read the news of his safe arrival in Luoyang, the gate opens again and a sweaty and tearful Tao rushes in. Wordlessly, he limps to his mother, places two coins in her hand, and goes inside.
The arrival of Wei’s telegram almost outweighs Tao’s return home from his trip. This links the two events together and suggests that Tao’s short, local trip is just as important to his character development and growth as Wei’s longer quest is to Wei’s development. And, since the book dwells on the similarities between Wei, Sheng, and Tao, the boy’s return auspiciously foreshadows his grandfather’s and holds out the promise that one day, his father will walk back through those gates, too.
Themes
