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
Sang Ly and Auntie take Nisay to the Healer, who has now returned. Sang Ly expects the Healer to be intimidating, but he is only a simple man in black shorts and a T-shirt. He seems to remember her, though she cannot remember him. When Sang Ly explains Nisay’s illness, the man says, “I’m sorry to hear. You should have come sooner.” The Healer leads them into his treatment hut and begins crushing a piece of a black rock into a “gummy tar” which he loads into a used syringe. Nisay senses the oncoming pain and begins to squirm and cry, but Sang Ly holds him still as best she can. The Healer pokes the syringe into each of Nisay’s limbs several times, and then gives the last of the black tar to Sang Ly to rub on the infant’s tongue with her finger.
The Healer’s statement exactly matches the words Sang Ly heard in her dreams, which confirms that she was right to trust herself and act on her hope. The Healer’s appearance in simple shorts and a t-shirt defies the conventional expectations of a “witch doctor,” suggesting that he is a fairly ordinary man simply practicing a different form of treatment than the norms of Western medicine. The pain Nisay must experience to be healed metaphorically suggests that any process of self-betterment is inevitably painful, requiring both hard work and painful honesty.
Themes
Auntie takes Nisay outside to calm down while Sang Ly speaks with the Healer. She tries to pay him but he waves it away and assures her that Nisay is now healed. Sang Ly does not want to be skeptical, but she has been disappointed so many times before. However, the fact that she has come all this way based on a dream means that Sopeap must be right: hope is inherent to human beings.
Sang Ly and Ki not only risk time, but also the little money they have, to visit the Healer. This demonstrates that their hope is strong and compelling enough for them to take great risks. However, Sang Ly’s struggle with cynicism also reveals that constant disappointment has made hope seem unreliable.
Themes
The Healer remarks that Sang Ly looks quite like her father, and reveals that he was close friends with her father growing up. He was even there when her father died, though he knew little about healing and was unable to save him. The guilt the Healer felt at not saving Sang Ly’s father pushed him to become a knowledgeable healer, though he distanced himself from Sang Ly’s family in his remorse. When Sang Ly says that she has never seen a picture of him, the Healer gifts her an old photograph of himself and her father that he has. The Healer also remarks that Sang Ly’s father would be proud of her. When Sang Ly replies that they live in a dump, he admonishes her, “It doesn’t matter where you live, Sang Ly, it matters how you live.” Sang Ly bows and leaves, praying to her father as she walks.
The Healer’s admonition that the place one lives is far less important than the manner in which one lives their life furthers Auntie’s argument, suggesting to Sang Ly that even though she is educated, she should not turn her back on who she is or where she came from. This is a valuable lesson for anyone who rises from humble beginnings. The fact that Sang Ly prays to her father, rather than her grandfather as usual, suggests that her brief conversation with the Healer and the picture he gave her makes her feel more connected to her father, as if she knows him just a little bit better now.
Themes
Taking the boat back to the village, Sang Ly and Ki say their final goodbyes to Auntie and Uncle Keo. Sang Ly spots Uncle Keo’s mother-in-law and tells Ki that she has one more thing to do before they depart. Taking the charred remains of the leather storybook from her suitcase—no stories remain completely intact—Sang Ly gifts the book to the old woman, whose face breaks out in a huge grin as she excitedly and eagerly prepares her cooking stove.
Although Sang Ly never wins Keo’s mother-in-law over with a story, a simple gift eases the tension between them and turns the mother-in-law’s demeanor from a scowl to a grin, yet again suggesting that her prickly behavior does not define her character, merely how she happened to be feeling in that moment.
Themes
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