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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dragonwings, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Interchange
Community vs. Individual Ambition
Anti-Chinese Racism
Nature and the Supernatural
Addiction and Destruction vs. Hope
Summary
Analysis
Shortly before Moon Shadow’s birth, his father left the Middle Kingdom—“or China, as the white demons call it”—to work in “the Land of the Golden Mountain,” a decision the family knew to be perilous, as rioters there had murdered Moon Shadow’s grandfather 30 years prior. Though curious about the Golden Mountain, Moon Shadow can’t learn much about it because his mother avoids the topic. Despite her yearslong separation from her husband, Moon Shadow’s mother never whines, on the grounds that their family are resilient “people of the Tang,” descendants of their region’s “famous dynasty.”
Moon Shadow gives two names for his home country: the Middle Kingdom, which he implies is the native name for his country, and “China,” which is what White foreigners –whom he terms “demons”—call it. By giving two different names for his country, Moon Shadow indicates that different cultural and national perspectives—Chinese versus American—will be important as the novel develops. In the same vein, when he refers to the U.S. simply as “the Land of the Golden Mountain,” he emphasizes his own non-American perspective on the U.S. The passage makes clear that cultural and national differences can end in racist and anti-immigrant violence when Moon Shadow reveals that U.S. rioters murdered his immigrant grandfather.
Themes
Though Moon Shadow has never met his father, his mother teaches him that his father is a master kite-maker and patiently shows him how to fly the various wonderful kites his father left behind. When Moon Shadow is eight by Tang reckoning (the Tang count pregnancy as the baby’s first year of life), he believes he is old enough to learn about the Golden Mountain—but his mother sharply rebuffs him when he asks.
Moon Shadow’s mother’s harsh refusal to tell Moon Shadow about the Golden Mountain (i.e. the U.S.) hints that she is afraid to reveal the full extent of the danger that looms over Moon Shadow’s father in the early 20th-century U.S.’s anti-immigrant, anti-Chinese society.
Themes
Moon Shadow’s grandmother, feeling sorry for him, explains that they call America the Golden Mountain because an enormous mountain made of gold is located there. When Moon Shadow asks why his father doesn’t mine gold from the mountain instead of doing laundry, in that case, his grandmother explains that the “demons” assault any Tang men who try to take large quantities of gold for themselves. Moon Shadow asks whether that’s what happened to his grandfather, and his grandmother admits that the demons sometimes assault Tang people without any cause. Moon Shadow thinks of all the village men he knows who returned from the Golden Mountain injured, sick, or utterly worn out from hard labor.
Themes
When Moon Shadow is nine (by Tang reckoning), his 50-something relative Hand Clap visits, announces that he’s returning to the Golden Mountain—and reveals a letter from Moon Shadow’s father, requesting that Moon Shadow come to the Golden Mountain while he is young enough to learn the language fluently. Moon Shadow’s grandmother and mother protest, and his mother claims that Moon Shadow doesn’t want to emigrate. Yet Moon Shadow feels he has a duty to follow his father’s wishes and takes courage from Hand Clap’s fondness for the Golden Mountain. He says he does want to emigrate.
Themes
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Moon Shadow takes a series of boats to reach the Golden Mountain. He fears the sailors, whom he thinks might be demons. (When the Tang people say “demon,” they can mean a ghost or a good or bad “supernatural creature,” though the “American devil” is invariably harmful.) When they near America, Moon Shadow is disappointed not to see a gold mountain anywhere. Hand Clap rehearses with Moon Shadow how to respond to questions at customs, which is important given recent U.S. hostility to Chinese immigrants. After waiting for a week in a warehouse, Moon Shadow is interviewed, measured extensively, and allowed through.
Once Moon Shadow and Hand Clap both get through customs, Moon Shadow sees a hilly city with dreary, relatively undecorated houses and a group of Tang men waiting for new immigrants. Hand Clap points out Moon Shadow’s Uncle Bright Star and then his father. Moon Shadow sprints up to his father, a tall man, who smiles, kneels, and opens his arms to Moon Shadow. Moon Shadow runs into the hug.
Themes
