News and Current Events

Major current events in the novel are used to symbolize the universality and inevitability of catastrophe. Each of the events that shake the family is marked by an unrelated event much bigger than themselves, usually a piece of news. The book is framed at the beginning by Ruby’s death and The Challenger crash, and at the end by the mother’s death, the children’s loss of contact with their father, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Other examples of this are the fall of the Russian rocket from the sky on the night that Natty goes missing, and the huge storm that accompanies Pei-Pei and the father’s day in court. Lin uses these parallels to intensify the family’s most pivotal moments.

Outer space

Throughout the novel, outer space represents an unattainable escape from the conditions of everyday life. The...