Political Unrest

Osborne depicts political unrest within the city to show the complexity of the setting in Thailand and its people. While Thailand may ostensibly appear like a peaceful monarchy, Osborne shows that to its lower and working class citizens, it is truly an authoritarian regime. After Sarah and Mali see a bomb go off, Mali tells Sarah: “There was a coup every ten years here, sometimes every five years, and nothing would ever penetrate The Kingdom. They were protected by high social connections” (90). The frequency of the attempted coups happen shows the tenacity of the people, and their lack of submission to a societal structure that offers them no political freedom. Osborne averts Mali’s claim that nothing would penetrate the Kingdom by concluding with a desolate building totally forsaken due to the political turmoil to show that the power of the rebellious people should not...