Water

Throughout the novel, imagery relating to water is used to symbolize emotional changes experienced by the characters. Early in the novel as Marie copes with the loss of her father, the rain and her bath tub seem to absorb her, representing the overwhelming nature of her grief and that of her mother. As the novel continues, words such as "deluge" accompany growing political unrest as viewed by Ai-ming, suggesting a similarly overwhelming emotional state (380). Major conversations between Ai-ming and her political interlocutors such as Yiwen and her father Sparrow are accompanied by rain or by descriptions of water buckets or dish washing; thus, Thien uses water to illustrate character growth and shifts in characters' emotional and political worlds.

The Book of Records

The Book of Records is a collection of ever-growing notebooks symbolizing the role of storytelling as historical record-keeping and thus political resistance in the...