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
Once or twice a week, Auntie Song or Kai Ying send Suyin on errands. Now that she lives there, she no longer looks on the Dongshan neighborhood as some sort of paradise. She sees the cracks in the walls and knows that the residents have problems, just like the families in Old Guangzhou. She feels both sad and relieved at this loss of innocence. But she’s also grateful: she doesn’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t reached the villa before Meizhen was born.
Suyin realizes that the neighborhood has its share of troubles—no one can escape pain and suffering. Still, she’s safer and happier here than she’s been in a long time because she’s finally found a loving and supportive family who appreciate what she contributes and who take care of her in turn.
Themes
Kai Ying wants a lean piece of pork—a key ingredient in most of her medicinal soups—and Suyin buys it from a vendor who once took pity on her when she was a beggar. Back then, the vendor gave her a bag of soup bones, even though Suyin had no way to make soup. She’d gnawed on the bones and sucked the marrow from them anyway before giving the leftovers to a hungry dog. Sometimes, Suyin wonders if anyone at the market recognizes her. They would have to have a keen eye to see the starving, pregnant beggar anymore in the healthy young mother.
As Suyin remembers her period of homelessness, it becomes clear how perilously close to death she came. Although people took pity on her, without knowing Suyin and understanding her context—without the kind of intimate knowledge only available through close relationships, in other words—no one could give her what she really needed. Now, safe with the Lees, she has become a different person in both spirit and physical appearance.
Themes
Then, Suyin walks toward Old Guangzhou. Seeing her brothers made her long for her mother, and if she hurries, she thinks she might be able to catch a glimpse of her leaving the apartment for work. Suyin hasn’t set foot in her neighborhood in eight months. She hides behind a pillar across the street from her family’s apartment building and tries to calm herself as she watches the morning foot traffic pick up. When her mother appears at the door, looking older and thinner, but smiling, Suyin begins to move, starts to call out. But then she sees her stepfather following her mother out of the door. The ugly memories of her rape come flooding back. Nauseated, she sags against the pillar. She knows she can never go home again.
The love Suyin feels with the Lees makes her nostalgic for her blood family, and she makes one final attempt to return to them. But seeing her stepfather reminds her that she can never go home. She can never return to the past—to the time before her stepfather raped her, changing her life forever. She can only find hope and peace by facing the truth of her experiences and choosing to invest in a family that truly cares for her wellbeing and happiness.
Themes
