Appearances Are Deceiving
One of the most persistent themes explored throughout this book is the idea that what appears to be on the surface may be quite different when examined more thoroughly. It is all a matter of perspective. The very look and structure of the book itself is where this theme begins. It tells a true story about the author so it would appear to be memoir. Give it to three different people and tell them to open to precise pages and flip through the next and it may be described as a book of poetry, scholarly research paper replete with footnotes and, for the person given on particular section with the words flowing sideways the bottom to the top of the page, a printing error. The theme is pursued in other ways as well, such as the part of the story where the author discusses returning to the Philippines after living in America for some time where her Asian appearance leads to immediate suspicions regarding her being in possession of an American passport.
Identity
The Asian-American bi-cultural status of the narrator/author also puts the them of identity confusion at the center of the story, but conventions and expectations of ethnicity are just one larger aspect that applies to her story. Of a more personal issue is that of the complications of her self-identity on a more literal level. The very title of the book, Marilyn, relates to this theme which revolves around the fact that her biological mother freely handed the car and custody her young daughter over to the Philippine state. This theme also becomes part of the theme of appearances regarding the issue of trying to categorize the book as opening to one page reveals a photocopy of the author’s birth certificate in perfect condition while the next page is a photocopy of the official government paperwork which transferred custody from mother to government. This document features a hole burned in the middle which the text reveals came about not as a result of mishandling but in an act of emotional tension by the author herself.
Words and Meaning
Wordplay is demonstrated throughout the book as a way of exploring themes related to how meaning becomes invested in language. Sometimes the language seems absolutely random as if there is truly no point or meaning, but is instead just a thought speeding through the author’s consciousness, but grabbed at the last second and written down for posterity:
“In the Philippines there is no word for snow.”
At other times, a progression is made of sounds made by words that leads to a different word. The collective meaning of this device is linked to the author’s assertion of the link between phonemes, language and the natural ability of the brain to hardwire connections in the first year of life:
“Abyss. Abysmal. A bay. A bahay. A bahay kubo.”
The centerpiece of this theme exploring the difference between a sound that is made and the word to which it is given meaning in the process called language forwarded as a singular expression of wonder that is applicable to so much of the book in larger thematic context:
“But what if you have something to say and can’t understand the English tongue?”
It is the implication that one’s identity is dependent upon language as a means of communication, but that the process of communication is disrupted by reactions to deceptive appearances which ties this assertion to the book’s exploration of its other major thematic issues.
