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
After three days without news from Wei, Tao is tired of waiting. After school, he leaves the protection of his grandfather’s favorite courtyard spot, on the bench under the kapok tree, heading out of the gate with two coins stolen from Kai Ying’s dresser in his pocket. He won’t risk Mr. Lam’s sweetshop, as he’s afraid of being escorted home again like before. He plans to go to the shop on the far side of the park, even though Sheng once told him a warning story about a little boy who went to the park alone and never came out. But now, Tao tells himself, he’s old enough. And if he wanders off, it’s his father’s and grandfather’s fault for leaving him unattended. Telling himself that he will be safe if he stays on the path, he enters the park.
A series of losses characterizes Tao’s recent life experience: Sheng, Little Shan, and Wei have all, in one way or another, abandoned him. Hurt and angry, Tao sets out to prove that he doesn’t need their care anyway, but of course, he still does. In a way, his attempt to prove his maturity represents his last attempt to run away from the painful truth rather than to face it: he wants to prove that his losses don’t hurt him when of course they do, and he must acknowledge that pain for it to become manageable and for it to teach him anything.
Themes
People fill the park in the late afternoon sunshine, their presence giving Tao confidence. But soon the path leads him into a more densely wooded area. He feels nervous when the path splits and he doesn’t know which way to go. A soldier appears behind him, asking where Tao is headed. Tao says he’s going to the store to buy things for his mother, nervously fingering the coins in his pocket. Then, he realizes the man isn’t a soldier at all. The man offers to show Tao something, and Tao runs away as the man opens his coat, holding his genitals in his hand.
The transformation of the dangerous stranger from a soldier—a representative of the government and a symbol of protection—into an exhibitionist suggests Tao’s distrust of the Communist Party, which has broken his family apart. It also metaphorically condemns the party for failing to protect China and its people from danger and harm during its early rule. And, on a broader level, the journey shows Tao how much growing up he still must do before he can actually fend for himself in the world.
Themes
