Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Rent Collector, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Power of Literature
Appearances, Judgment, and Hidden Character
Heroism and Self-Sacrifice
Hope and Action
Humor and Resilience
Summary
Analysis
Traditionally, when Cambodian parents grow old they move in with their children. For Sang Ly’s mother, Lena, that unfortunately meant moving into the garbage dump. However, Lena is good-humored about it, and even enjoys picking trash, though Sang Ly cannot fathom why. Sang Ly and Ki Lim’s hut is too small for all of them, so Lena lives with a distant cousin, a 10-minute walk away.
On the second day of teaching, Sopeap is half-drunk, and is angry and impatient whenever Sang Ly does not understand something. Sang Ly berates her for being drunk so often, but as she does, Sopeap doubles over, crawls outside, and vomits up the alcohol before saying that she will be back tomorrow, and will be sober. When Sang Ly goes to clean the vomit, she notices that it is mixed with blood.
Sopeap’s vomit mixed with blood clearly suggests that she is very ill in some manner, which may be related to why she drinks heavily and treats people poorly. Sang Ly’s criticism of Sopeap’s drunkenness suggests that she is becoming more confident in calling out her teacher’s poor behavior.
Themes
In the evening, Ki wants Sang Ly to come to bed with him, but she insists she needs to study longer. Ki is irritated and still does not understand why reading is so important to his wife. When Sang Ly states that she hopes it will bring change, Ki grows uncomfortable and admits that he fears such change. Even though they are poor, life in the dump is familiar, and he is comforted knowing that Sang Ly still needs him. Sang Ly reassures him that no matter what changes, she will always need him, and joins him in bed.
Ki’s fear of change, particularly that Sang Ly will somehow outgrow her need of him, suggests that the familiarity of life in poverty becomes its own form of entrapment, and fear of doing something new or different may keep people in poverty longer than is necessary. This also suggests that Ki is insecure about his own position as a husband, at least to some degree.
Themes
Sang Ly spends more afternoons picking trash now, because it affords her more opportunities to study. When she finds bits of refuse with writing on them, she picks out the letters and recites their names and sounds. One afternoon, while she is sounding out the letters in a line of text, she realizes that she is able to understand that it spells samnang, the Cambodian word for “luck.” In the thrill of reading her first word, Sang Ly collapses on the ground, weeping with joy. She then pockets the piece of paper and skips home. By the time Ki is home from picking, Sang Ly has decoded the entire piece of paper, a slogan of a local restaurant that reads, “Where everyday is lucky.” After proudly showing Ki, she gives him a warm hug, and he hugs her back.
Sang Ly’s playful approach to studying while she works represents a form of good humor, demonstrating that such humor can make even the filthiest work enjoyable and beneficial in its own right. The fact that Sang Ly reads before she even realizes she knows how suggests that she possesses untapped potential, waiting to be set loose. “Luck” being the first word that Sang Ly actively interprets recalls Grandfather’s prophetic dream while suggesting that in life, one makes their own luck, since she could only read it as a result of her actions and hard work.
Themes
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