Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Crazy Rich Asians, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Wealth and Absurdity
Marriage and Money
Family vs. Individuality
Chinese vs. Western Culture
Summary
Analysis
Rachel runs to Sophie’s bungalow, shaking and white. Sophie settles Rachel in a chair with a blanket and goes to look at Rachel’s room—and she returns enraged. She initially agrees to call hotel security, but then she notes that the prankster or pranksters probably want Rachel to make a scene and ruin Araminta’s party. It’d be better, Sophie suggests, to say nothing and not give them the satisfaction. Rachel sees the wisdom in this, so she accepts Sophie’s offer of a cup of tea. The girls sit on the deck, and Sophie observes that Astrid was right to ask her to look out for Rachel—Rachel clearly wasn’t prepared for this. Rachel says she just doesn’t understand the viciousness, since there are other wealthy families with eligible bachelors in Singapore.
Sophie agrees that the fish prank is wildly inappropriate and threatening because she believes Rachel deserves respect, despite her lower economic status and the fact that she’s dating Nick. But such a view isn’t normal in this particular circle of wealthy Singaporeans. Rachel shows here that Astrid is right, and she has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. It’s unthinkable to her that anyone would try to intimidate a girlfriend like this. But this is because Rachel doesn’t grasp how much of a “catch” Nick is—or how inappropriate of a match people think she is for Nick.
Themes
Sophie explains that many of these girls have had crushes on Nick since they were kids, since Nick is so attractive. Further, Nick’s family is extremely private, which creates a “certain mystique.” Most people in Singapore don’t even know his family exists, but all the girls that know about him want to be his wife. Rachel notes that Nick hasn’t spoken much about his family, and Sophie explains that he was raised not to. He grew up lonely and always seemed thrilled when other kids came over to play.
With Sophie’s help, Rachel begins to understand why Nick has (unintentionally) failed to prepare her well for navigating upper-crust Singapore. He grew up believing he shouldn’t talk about his family or his money, and as his friendship with Colin shows, Nick was friendly to everyone who was kind to him—even if they weren’t as rich as he was.
Themes
Rachel admits that the wildest part is that people here assume she and Nick are getting married soon, when they’ve never spoken about marriage. Yes, Rachel could see herself being married to Nick, but she wasn’t raised to value marriage above all else. Sophie says that here, girls face lots of pressure to marry and aren’t considered “complete” until they’ve married and had kids. That’s why Araminta is so excited to get married.
This passage is extremely important, as it explains what makes Rachel so different from the Singaporean girls tormenting her: marriage to Nick won’t be the end-all, be-all of her life. Some of this is because Rachel is American, and American culture tends to value a person’s profession more than whether or not they’re married.
Themes
Sophie then reveals that Araminta is going to be her sister-in-law; Sophie is Colin’s brother, and their mother was Harry Leong’s sister. She admits her mom died when she was young, and Rachel says it makes sense now why Sophie isn’t like the other girls. Sophie says she was always treated differently as a kid, since her family wasn’t perfect. And then she attended school in Australia immediately following her mom’s death, which contributed to her feeling different from her peers.
Sophie suggests something pretty shocking here: that if two adults don’t have a “perfect” marriage, their children suffer. She also offers more credence to the idea that Nick is different in part because he was educated abroad, as she attended school in Australia and attributes some of her difference to that. She and Nick, though, see their western educations as a positive, while older generations (like Eleanor) see their children’s western-style education as negatives.
Themes
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