Identity and the Self

Ava’s relationships with Julian and Edith are the narrative soil by which the novel explores how the individual crafts identity and the self according to her intimates. When Ava first leaves Dublin for Hong Kong, she thinks that she is making a positive change. She thinks that leaving her life and relationships in Dublin behind will alter how she sees herself and her future. However, in Chapter 2, she admits, “I had no idea who I was” (5). At 22, Ava has just finished university and is living in an unfamiliar city. Instead of seizing her new circumstances as an opportunity to remake or to discover herself, she latches onto Julian only a month after arriving. She asserts that she and Julian get “on well” because she “enjoy[s] his money and he enjoy[s] how easily impressed [she is] by it” (4). Therefore, their relationship...