Do Not Say We Have Nothing

by

Madeleine Thien

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Big Mother Knife’s sister, Wen the Dreamer’s wife, and Zhuli’s mother. Like Big Mother Knife, Swirl grows up traveling and performing during the war. She has a beautiful voice, and her singing helps her and her community deal with the atrocities of the violence that surrounds them. One day, Swirl is performing in a teahouse when Wen the Dreamer sees her for the first time. Smitten, he begins sending her chapters of The Book of Records to woo her. She devours the chapters as soon as they arrive, but one day, they run out. Desperate to know the ending, she looks everywhere for a copy of the book. When she looks at the Old Cat’s bookstore, she finally meets Wen, who is also searching for the rest of the book. The two are soon married. Swirl goes to live in Wen’s family home. During Land Reform, they are publicly humiliated in front of the whole village and they are sent to live in a hut on the outskirts of town. Later, Swirl and Wen are convicted as rightists and they are sent to re-education camps. Swirl almost starves to death during her time at the hard labor camp in the Northwest, but her friend, Lady Dostoevsky, saves her from the famine. When Swirl is released from the camp, she goes to live with her sister in Shanghai but she still has the habit of trying to steal portions of food, for fear of going hungry again. When the Cultural Revolution begins, Swirl and Big Mother Knife go in search of Wen and they meet up with him at Notes from the Underground, Lady Dostoevsky’s plant and flower clinic. Swirl and Wen spend the rest of their days wandering the deserts of Western China and they eventually help Ai-ming, Big Mother Knife’s granddaughter, travel to Canada to escape political persecution.

Swirl Quotes in Do Not Say We Have Nothing

The Do Not Say We Have Nothing quotes below are all either spoken by Swirl or refer to Swirl. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Individual Identity Under Communism  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The novel leaped and turned, as if entire chapters or pages had been ripped out; but Swirl, too, had been uprooted by the war, and she had no trouble filling in the missing gaps.

Related Characters: Swirl, Wen the Dreamer
Related Symbols: The Book of Records
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Wen’s nose began to bleed. The man slapped him repeatedly, as if he were disciplining a child. The crowd was laughing and the laughter had a sharp, bleating sound. Two men on the stage were kicked until they no longer moved Swirl thought she must be hallucinating when the guns were drawn and Da Ge and his wife were executed.

Related Characters: Swirl, Wen the Dreamer, Da Ge
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

Big Mother continued through the rooms. Now she found herself at the foot of the alcove steps. Putting aside her walking stick. She paused to offer a poem to the God of Literature because, after all, these mysterious notebooks belonged to his domain. She recited:

When the mind is exalted,
the body is lightened
and feels as if it could float in the wind.
This city is famed as a center of letters;
and all you writers coming here
prove that the name of a great land
is made by better things than wealth.

Related Characters: Big Mother Knife (speaker), Swirl, Wen the Dreamer
Related Symbols: The Book of Records
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“One should be careful of the sun,” the man said, as if talking to himself. He reached out, pulled the string, and the fan started up once more. “One should learn to practice in the shade.”

Related Characters: Swirl (speaker), Ba Lute (speaker), Wen the Dreamer
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Do Not Say We Have Nothing LitChart as a printable PDF.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing PDF

Swirl Quotes in Do Not Say We Have Nothing

The Do Not Say We Have Nothing quotes below are all either spoken by Swirl or refer to Swirl. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Individual Identity Under Communism  Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The novel leaped and turned, as if entire chapters or pages had been ripped out; but Swirl, too, had been uprooted by the war, and she had no trouble filling in the missing gaps.

Related Characters: Swirl, Wen the Dreamer
Related Symbols: The Book of Records
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Wen’s nose began to bleed. The man slapped him repeatedly, as if he were disciplining a child. The crowd was laughing and the laughter had a sharp, bleating sound. Two men on the stage were kicked until they no longer moved Swirl thought she must be hallucinating when the guns were drawn and Da Ge and his wife were executed.

Related Characters: Swirl, Wen the Dreamer, Da Ge
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

Big Mother continued through the rooms. Now she found herself at the foot of the alcove steps. Putting aside her walking stick. She paused to offer a poem to the God of Literature because, after all, these mysterious notebooks belonged to his domain. She recited:

When the mind is exalted,
the body is lightened
and feels as if it could float in the wind.
This city is famed as a center of letters;
and all you writers coming here
prove that the name of a great land
is made by better things than wealth.

Related Characters: Big Mother Knife (speaker), Swirl, Wen the Dreamer
Related Symbols: The Book of Records
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“One should be careful of the sun,” the man said, as if talking to himself. He reached out, pulled the string, and the fan started up once more. “One should learn to practice in the shade.”

Related Characters: Swirl (speaker), Ba Lute (speaker), Wen the Dreamer
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis: