Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Leavers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Identity and Belonging
Migration, Change, and Happiness
Racism, Cultural Insensitivity, and Implicit Bias
Self-Deception and Rationalization
Parenthood, Support, and Expectations
Summary
Analysis
Polly narrates what it’s like to live in New York City after sending Deming to China. Every week, she calls her father and talks to her child, who’s now five. One day, Haifeng’s mother answers the phone when Polly calls and tells her that her father has died. “He had a heart attack last night,” she explains. Polly breaks down, and in the coming days, calls to talk to Deming every single night. Before long, she and Haifeng’s mother make arrangements for Deming to return to America, and Polly incurs even more debt in order to pay for his ticket.
By the time Deming is five, he has already lived in more than one country. From the very beginning of his life, then, he has a multicultural identity, one informed by his time in China and his time in the United States. In this sense, his early years foreshadow the identity crisis he has later in life, when he goes from living amongst Chinese immigrants to living in the white-majority suburb of Ridgeborough.
Themes
Before Deming comes back to the United States, Polly goes to a party at Didi’s boyfriend’s house. While she’s there, she meets Leon for the first time and is attracted to the way he shuffles cards during a poker game. That night, they kiss on the street, and fall in love shortly thereafter. Leon doesn’t mind that Polly has a son, so he isn’t put off when Deming arrives.
Readers know that Leon will later abandon Deming like the rest of the adults in the young boy’s life. For now, though, he appears to be a gracious and kind man, the type of person who’s perfectly willing to help support his lover’s child.
Themes
Didi gets Polly a job at Hello Gorgeous, the nail salon where she works. Meanwhile, Polly tries to reacquaint herself with Deming, feeling as if he has “filled out into a new person.” She finds that Didi is quite good with him, and though she appreciates her friend’s willingness to pay attention to her son, she feels guilty for not having the same patience. “Perhaps there was something wrong with me because I didn’t have an infinite amount of patience for children’s games,” she notes.
Having been separated from her child for so long, Polly doesn’t naturally fall back into the life of a doting parent. What’s more, it’s worth noting that she was never terribly eager to give up her life for Deming in the first place, so it’s unsurprising that she doesn’t have an “infinite amount of patience for children’s games,” though this makes her feel guilty—a sign that she wishes she were a different kind of person.
Themes
Leon lives with Vivian (his sister) and Michael, and he invites Polly and Deming to move in, too. Although the apartment is too small for all of them, it’s clear that Deming enjoys Michael’s presence, and Polly likes living with her new lover. Leon, for his part, expresses his desire to marry Polly, but she avoids this conversation, putting it off by saying they should “wait and see” what happens. She knows that most Chinese immigrants try to marry people with American citizenship, but she doesn’t want to wed a stranger just to get a green card, though neither is she ready to marry Leon.
Even in her relationship with Leon, Polly carefully guards her autonomy. In this case, her desire for independence manifests itself in her reluctance to get married. If she marries Leon, she seems to think, she will be forever tied down. By putting off the conversation, then, she maintains a sense of freedom, as if she can pick up and leave whenever she wants, though there are still plenty of things that should convince her to stay.
Themes
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As the years pass, Deming becomes increasingly comfortable in America. Before long, his English is better than Polly’s, and she has to struggle to keep up with his and Michael’s conversations. One day when he’s ten, he tells her that his nickname at school is “Number Two Special,” and when she doesn’t understand, he explains that the name is based on what people order from Chinese restaurants. “You don’t work in a takeout restaurant,” she says. “Yeah,” he replies, “but I’m Chinese.” When she suggests that he should tell his classmates to stop calling him this name, he says, “It’s a joke, Mama.”
Deming’s acceptance of his racist nickname suggests that he’s unwilling to challenge his classmates. Of course, this doesn’t remain the case, as made evident by his willingness to stand up for himself in Ridgeborough when Cody calls him a “Chinese retard.” For now, though, he tries to write such bigotry off as nothing more than a “joke.” By downplaying the impact of this “joke,” he tries to convince himself that his peers’ insensitivity isn’t a big deal.
Themes
Polly takes out yet another loan, since she has to pay $200 to train at the nail salon before she’ll get paid, though she’s allowed to keep her tips during this time. As she gets better and better at painting nails, she covets the approval of her boss, Rocky, who assures her that she’s a “customer favorite.” She even hears Rocky saying to another person, “I bet Polly could run this place as well as I could.” This, combined with the rumor that Rocky might open a new salon, excites Polly, who dreams of managing a nail shop. One of the other workers tells her that Rocky married her husband because he was “illegal” and was “about to get busted by Immigration” and put in “immigration jail.” “I thought her husband was Chinese mafia,” Polly says, and her coworker agrees that this might be the case.
The rumors about Rocky’s husband being in the Chinese mafia add to the mystery surrounding Polly’s eventual disappearance. Readers might remember that Didi said Rocky was involved in something “shady” in the initial aftermath of Polly’s vanishing. As such, Ko continues to string suspense through the narrative, inviting readers to wonder if Polly’s disappearance has to do with the Chinese mafia or—perhaps—something to do with “immigration jail.”
Themes
One afternoon, Rocky asks Polly to accompany her to her home on Long Island, since she forgot something. When they arrive, Polly sees Rocky’s husband sitting before a TV and eating Cheetos straight from the bag. On the ride home, she asks Rocky what he does for a living, and she says he’s between jobs. Rocky then reveals her plan to open a new nail salon in the Bronx, and when Polly says she’d be happy to manage a new location, Rocky replies, “Yes, I’ll let you know, of course.”
The promise of a promotion hangs over Polly, making her feel as if she might actually be able to attain upward mobility. After ten years of living in New York with very little to show for her hard work, this prospect is surely quite tantalizing, as it plays to her natural thirst for perpetual change and personal improvement.
Themes
Leon’s back starts bothering him so much that his performance suffers at work. During this time, he talks about wanting to have a child with Polly, but she avoids the discussion. Knowing Deming will soon be able to care for himself more substantially, she doesn’t want to have yet another person to look after. “I could work more, get a better job, learn English,” she notes. Still, this doesn’t keep Leon from asking her to marry him, and because she’s so taken aback, she says yes, though she urges him to wait until the spring to make it official.
Again, Polly is excited to reestablish her freedom and independence. When Deming is more self-sufficient, some of the stressors of parenthood will abate, and she’ll be able to focus a bit more on her own life, thereby easing some of the anxieties she has surrounding the burdens of being a caretaker. This is why she doesn’t want to have another child, but because she loves Leon and doesn’t know how to respond, she agrees to marry him, though this doesn’t mean she’ll also agree to have a baby with him.
Themes
Not long after Leon’s proposal, Polly walks around on her day off and goes into a small Chinese restaurant for some water, but the server won’t give her any. Seeing this, another woman offers Polly a sip from her own bottle, speaking to her in Fuzhounese and asking how long she’s been in New York. When Polly tells her that it’s been ten years since she first came to the city, the woman says she’s only lived here for three years, though she’s about to move to San Francisco because she heard it’s nice. When Polly leaves, she thinks about how she could be like this woman if she didn’t have so many responsibilities. “Once I might have become this woman, free to move across the country because she heard a city was beautiful,” she thinks.
Yet again, Polly sees her parental duty as a burden, something that has interfered with her ability to “move across the country” and roam unbridled by responsibility. In turn, Ko teases the idea that Polly’s eventual disappearance has to do with her restlessness, though it remains unclear what actually happens. For now, readers simply witness her desire to be independent and unencumbered, believing that change will bring happiness.
Themes
Thinking about her encounter with the woman in the Chinese restaurant, Polly suddenly becomes certain the stranger was her friend Qing from the Fuzhounese factories. “She hadn’t recognized me, but perhaps I no longer resembled my younger self,” she thinks. Not long after this, Polly and Leon take a trip to Atlantic City because Didi has a number of vouchers for free hotel stays, since her husband has a gambling problem and has spent absurd amounts of money in the casinos. Excited to be getting out, Polly gets drunk on the casino floor and is overcome when she wins at blackjack. She and Leon keep playing and keep winning, feeling like it’s not “real money.” “We’re living in a game,” Polly says to Leon. Drunk and giddy, she decides to lie down in the hotel room while Leon continues to gamble.
It makes sense that Polly would enjoy gambling. Not only does this demonstrate how similar she and Daniel are, but it also aligns with her love of change. After all, winning money could open new doors for her. Since she believes that change creates happiness, then, gambling makes her feel full of possibility and contentment.
Themes
One of Polly’s loan payments was due the day she left for Atlantic City, but she didn’t have time to send the money. As a result, she came to Atlantic City with $380. The next morning, she wakes to discover that Leon has spent it all. “First I won so much, you wouldn’t believe it,” he says. “Five thousand dollars!” However, he wasn’t able to stop when he started losing, so he came back to the room and took Polly’s money from her wallet, thinking “for sure” he’d “win it back.” Furious, Polly hurls a pillow at the wall, saying, “How could you think we could win money for free? Nothing is free.”
The phrase “nothing is free” is worth examining, since it perfectly addresses the fact that everything Polly has in her life has come at some kind of personal cost. Indeed, she accrued large amounts of debt just to come to the United States. Even the joys of parenthood have cost her, since she has sacrificed her personal freedom (at least according to her). For this reason, she sees the inherent folly of gambling, which tricks people into forgetting that everything comes at a price.
Themes
Several days after returning from Atlantic City, Polly hears about a job opportunity at a restaurant in Florida. That night, she tells Leon she wants to go, but he isn’t convinced. She reminds him that he lost her money, saying this will be a good chance to make it back, but he points out that it was “only a couple hundred dollars,” hardly enough to justify moving. Getting ready for bed, he tells her to forget about the entire idea, promising to make back the money he lost. The next day, Polly tells Didi about her plan, and even she thinks it’s not a good idea. “I just think this isn’t the best I can do,” Polly insists, but she fails to convince her friend. “Stay in New York. Get married, have a baby,” Didi counsels.
At this point in the novel, Polly’s narration approaches the time period in which the first chapter takes place, when she tells Deming that they’re moving to Florida. As she thinks about this new possibility, she considers it an opportunity to improve her life. “I just think this isn’t the best I can do,” she tells Didi, trying to explain that she’s unhappy in her current life. Unfortunately for her, though, everyone around her doesn’t understand why she wants so badly to leave, perhaps seeing that this kind of change won’t bring about any kind of substantial improvements to her life.
Themes
One day, Polly tells Deming that the family is moving, even though Leon hasn’t agreed. That night, Leon comes home from his late-night shift, and Polly tries once more to convince him. “Don’t you want to go with me?” she asks, but he says he can’t leave Vivian, and when Polly says Vivian and Michael can come, too, Leon tells her that Vivian called him earlier. “[She] thought I was leaving without telling her,” he says. “You told Deming we were moving to Florida. I didn’t agree to that.” Going on, he tells her she shouldn’t uproot Deming, but she says, “Deming is a child, he doesn’t get to decide.” “A mother is supposed to sacrifice for her son, not the other way around,” Leon says. “You think I don’t love my son?” Polly erupts, slapping the mattress. “Go fuck yourself.”
Readers know from the first chapter that Deming hears Polly whisper, “Go fuck yourself,” to Leon. That she’s unable to contain her anger in this moment is a sign of how badly she wants to move to Florida. Thinking that migrating once more will bring her happiness, she tries as hard as she can to convince Leon that this is what’s best for everyone, including Deming. However, Leon can see that the main reason she wants to move is to satisfy her own restlessness, not to give Deming a better life.
Themes
The next morning, Polly gets up and talks to Leon in the kitchen. “I’ll think about Florida,” he says, adding that it might be good to live outside the city if they have a baby. Despite this peace offering, he doesn’t react when Polly hugs him. At work that day, Polly is concentrating so hard on applying polish to a customer’s nail that she doesn’t notice a group of policemen enter the shop. Suddenly, several of her Vietnamese coworkers jump up and start to run, and the authorities yell, “Down! Down!” As Polly tries to understand what’s happening around her, a man pulls her hands behind her back, and all she can think about is Deming.
At last, Ko reveals why Polly never comes home from work the day after she tells Deming they’re moving to Florida. Although the author has been hinting throughout the novel that Polly’s reason for leaving might have to do with her restlessness, in this moment it becomes clear that this has nothing to do with her disappearance. Rather, she’s plucked from her everyday life by authorities who are most likely trying to capture undocumented immigrants like her. Suddenly, then, the novel’s engagement with the topic of migration takes on a new dimension, as Ko examines the ways in which immigration laws can profoundly affect families by breaking them apart.
Themes
