Ren

Ren is the first and last character to be introduced in Choo’s novel. At the beginning, Ren is by Dr. MacFarlane’s deathbed, instructed to return the doctor’s missing finger to his grave “’before the forty-nine days of my soul are over’” (1). Ren’s name means benevolence, the greatest of the five Confucian virtues: “human-heartedness: the benevolence that distinguishes man from beast” (40). He desperately wants to honor his dying master’s wishes—not only because he loves his master arguably more than life, but because if his master’s finger is not returned to his grave, disastrous things will happen.

Ren comes into the care of William Acton, an old friend of Dr. MacFarlane’s an a surgeon in a nearby town. Ren comes to love his new master almost as much as he loved his old one, but his life is still shaped by his...