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
Daniel stays in Fuzhou and teaches English at World Top, where Polly works. His students take to him, and he makes friends with the other teachers, though he often feels lonely. It has been three months since he came to China, and he hasn’t spoken to Peter and Kay once. Financially stable for the first time in a long while, he starts to repay Angel. During his free time, he often looks up Psychic Hearts, which has been getting significant attention, though the band’s recent shows have received bad reviews. Daniel is living with Polly and Yong, but Polly hasn’t said anything about his birthday, which is today. When he asks his colleagues if they want to do something with him in the evening, they look at each other and say they can’t. Similarly, Leon—whom Daniel sees a couple times a week—is busy.
Daniel has settled into life in Fuzhou, but this doesn’t mean he’s found happiness. Although he’s doing well, it’s clear that he misses elements of his American life, as evidenced by his desire to track Psychic Hearts. As such, readers see the dual nature of his cultural identity—he isn’t solely Chinese, nor is he solely American; he’s Chinese-American, so he finds it difficult to establish his multicultural identity when he’s in Fuzhou, where few people are acquainted with American culture.
Themes
After work on his birthday, Daniel takes the bus home and thinks about what it’s like to live in Fuzhou. “There was a comfort in belonging that he’d never felt before, yet somehow, he still stood out,” Ko writes. People often look at him strangely and notice his accented Chinese. As he exits the bus, he calls his mother, but she doesn’t pick up, and he becomes frustrated that he’s once more let her disappoint him. When he enters the apartment, though, Polly, Yong, and “a blur of other faces” jump out, yelling, “Surprise!” As he stands there looking at everyone he knows in Fuzhou, he realizes that his mother didn’t forget his birthday after all.
Throughout his life, Daniel has learned not to count on the adults in his life. Even Kay and Peter have—in their own way—failed to give him the support he needs. Now, though, he is overjoyed to realize that his mother actually cares about him and isn’t going to let him down again, finally living up to what he expects of her as a parent.
Themes
At one point during his birthday party, Daniel goes into his bedroom and checks his computer, finding kind messages from people like Cody and Roland. He then receives a video call from Peter and Kay. “Where are you?” Peter asks, and Daniel says he’s in China. He fills his adoptive parents in on what he’s been doing, and Kay asks if he’s going to come home, saying, “You know you’re always welcome here.” Peter also chimes in, suggesting that Daniel should come home for Christmas. Just then, Polly enters, and Daniel can see that Peter and Kay catch a glimpse of her in the background. As such, he says, “Kay and Peter? This is my mother, Polly.” Peter and Kay are stiff and uncomfortable, but they’re polite, noting that Daniel and Polly look alike. “Thank you for taking care of Daniel,” Kay says.
When Kay thanks Polly for “taking care of Daniel,” she subtly asserts her authority as Daniel’s legal guardian, implying that Polly is only a temporary caretaker. Of course, readers know that Polly only left Daniel because she was forced to, but from Kay’s perspective, she’s a woman who abandoned her son and is now swooping back in after the work of raising him has already been completed. While this tense conversation plays out, Daniel is caught in the middle of his two lives, forced to reconcile his relationship with Polly with his relationship with Peter and Kay.
Themes
After Daniel ends the video call with Peter and Kay, he rejoins the party. Afterwards, he cleans up, hoping to distract Polly from asking about Peter and Kay. “He didn’t want to go [to] Carlough,” Ko writes. “He didn’t want to present papers at the Conference for English Educators. Peter and Kay had supported him, in their own way, so why did he feel angry with them?” Daniel also thinks about how he doesn’t want to make Polly feel bad by causing her to feel guilty for leaving him. “Everyone had stories they told themselves to get through the days,” Ko notes. “Like Vivian’s belief that she had helped him, his mother insisting she had looked for him, that she could forget about him because he was okay.”
Ko’s assertion that “everyone [has] stories they [tell] themselves to get through the day” is worth considering, since it applies to many of the characters in The Leavers. Indeed, Polly tells herself that she tried to find Daniel even though she did very little to reunite with him once she settled into her life with Yong. Similarly, Vivian claims to have done everything she could to have “helped” Daniel in the aftermath of his mother’s disappearance, but the reality is that she simply gave him away (though, to be fair, she didn’t have any other way to provide for him). Even Daniel often deceives himself, finding creative ways to rationalize his gambling relapses. As such, Ko spotlights how easily people trick themselves into ignoring their shortcomings.
Themes
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While Daniel’s washing dishes, Polly enters and tells him she saw that he hasn’t yet filled out the forms he needs to complete in order to obtain a visa to stay in Fuzhou. Not wanting to talk about it, he says he’ll complete them the following day. “You’re going to New York for Christmas? To your adoptive family?” Polly asks, having overheard this discussion while he was talking to Peter and Kay. “No, of course not,” he replies. “So you’re going to stay?” she asks. When she says this, Daniel thinks about the nature of “forgiveness,” thinking about how “you could spend years being angry with someone and then realize you no longer felt the same, that your usual mode of thinking had slipped away when you weren’t noticing.”
Yet again, Daniel finds himself torn between his birth mother and his adoptive parents. This time, he senses how badly Polly wants him to choose her over Peter and Kay. Rather than stressing him out, though, this sentiment appeals to him, since Polly’s concern proves that she cares about him. Indeed, he no longer has to question whether or not she wants him in her life, making it easier for him to forgive her for her absence.
Themes
Daniel realizes that he’s no longer vying for his mother’s love. Similarly, he doesn’t have to go out of his way to earn Peter and Kay’s affection. “He could see, in the flash of worry in his mother’s face as she waited for his reply, like he had heard in Kay and Peter’s shaking voices when they said good-bye to him earlier, that in the past few months, his fear of being unwanted had dissipated,” Ko writes. “Because Mama—and Kay, and Peter—were trying to convince him that they were deserving of his love, not the other way around.” Stepping away from the sink, he picks up a pen and signs the visa forms.
For the majority of the novel, Daniel has been trying to earn the love of his caretakers. Seemingly unable to gain their support, he has felt unworthy and alone. Now, though, he recognizes how badly both sets of guardians want him in their lives, proving not only that he deserves to be loved, but that Peter, Kay, and Polly have finally realized that they need to show how much they appreciate him.
Themes
