America
This is a novel constructed upon the concept of metaphor. The very fundamentals of the language used are rich in metaphorical imagery describing America to a person from China who has never seen it first-hand:
“Grandmother felt sorry for me then, and she tried to tell me, among other things, why we called America the Land of the Golden Mountain. `It’s because there’s a big mountain there…a thousand miles high and three thousand miles wide, and all a man has to do is wait until the sun warms the mountain and then scoop the gold into big buckets.”
The Demons
Granny also has insight into the demons. This is an all-encompassing metaphorical term covering white Americans. It is especially directed toward those who exploit Chinese labor, however:
“They roam the mountain up and down, and they beat up any of our men who try to get the gold. The demons use clubs as big as trees, and they kick them and do worse things. But if you do the work they tell you to do, then they let you take a little pinch of gold.”
Uncle
There is a character known as Uncle who may remind some readers familiar with Hong Kong gangster movies of the “Uncles” in leadership positions in the Tong. Like those nefarious guys, Uncle is very possessive and exhibitionistic of his claims to power and authority:
“Uncle treated his chair very much like a throne in which no one else was allowed to sit. When Uncle was settled into his chair, he did not so much speak as make proclamations, so we knew better than to argue with him at that time.”
Miracle at Kitty Hawk
The Wright Brothers play a pretty significant role in the story. The narrator and his father exchange letters with Orville and receive plans and diagrams assisting their dream to build a flying machine. This is despite the fact that the one built by the brothers hardly inspired confidence:
“It was hard to believe, when you saw a picture of the Wrights’ flying machine, that it really could fly. It was mostly a skeleton of wooden poles, with canvas stretched only over the wings.”
Mountains of Gold
Eventually, the narrator realizes that the metaphor he has heard all his life is just symbolism and not literal. Even more to the point, he comes to learn that perspective on the meaning of metaphor can also change with time:
“I had found my mountain of gold, after all, and it had not been nuggets but people who had made it up: people like the Company and the Whitlaws. I had not realized until I had left it that I had been on the mountain of gold all that time.”
