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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in These Violent Delights, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Factions, Feuds, and Forbidden Love
Retaliation and Justice
Imperialism and Greed
Moral Complexity, Betrayal, and Forgiveness
Power, Responsibility, and Monstrosity
Summary
Analysis
People begin screaming in the burlesque club as the man falls to the ground and tears at his throat. Juliette tells Roma that he has to leave and has men from the Scarlet Gang escort him from the club. As Roma is leaving, he says that what’s happening to the man in the club is the same thing that happened to the men last night. It’s not an isolated incident, he adds, and is instead “madness.” After Roma leaves, Juliette goes to the man on the floor. In his dying breath, the man says the word “Guài,” which Juliette understands to mean that he has seen a monster. Walter then says that the man’s actions remind him of the “lunacy of an addict.”
Notably, Roma describes what happens to the man in the club and what happened to the men the other night as “madness.” Walter then describes what he sees as the “lunacy of an addict.” In that way, the passage draws a symbolic link between the “madness” these men are experiencing and the mental illness of substance use disorder. The man who falls in this scene also references the monster, further underlining the connection between the monster and that apparent “madness” afflicting people.
Active
Themes
Meanwhile, at the White Flower Gang headquarters, where Roma’s family lives, Roma’s sister, Alisa, eavesdrops while her father, Lord Montagov, speaks with two Chinese spies. The spies and Lord Montagov discuss the spreading “madness.” One of the men says that it is linked to a monster, which he saw himself in the Huangpu River. Alisa thinks her father seems afraid. And if he’s afraid, Alisa thinks, then something must really be wrong because he rarely shows fear.
Active
Themes
