"Learn my fate. Isn't that what you always used to tell me? That luck has nothing to do with success? That men make their own luck?" He laughs again. "And now look at you.”
Ma’s egotism and reprisal become palpable when he taunts Tranh with the same words that Tranh used to mock him when he (Ma) had not thrived. Based on these words, it is clear that Tranh embraced the ideology of the self-made man and he ascribed his accomplishment to the ideology.
“Clothes make the man. Or kill him. Tranh understands this, finally. A white tailored suit from Hwang Brothers is nothing so much as a target. An antique piece of gold mechanization swinging on your wrist is nothing if not bait.”
Exclusive clothing exposes refugees to peril. Before the war, Tranh assumed that one’s clothing can be contributory in eliciting worthy impressions. However, in Thai kingdom, refugees, who are clad expensively, are predisposed to attacks from ‘white shirts’ who take their clothes and vend them. The veracity of life as refugee is incongruous to the life that Tranh led while in his country.
“Tranh tries to control his hunger, to force himself to walkaway, but he can't. He knows men who might have enough face to starve before accepting Ma's scraps, but he isn't one of them. A lifetime ago, he might have been. But the humiliations of his new life have taught him much about who he really is. He has no sweet illusions now. He sits. Ma beams and pushes his half-eaten dishes across the table.”
Tranh’s state of affairs compels him to eat humble pie. He has two options: to either take the leftovers or to starve. He cannot hold onto the illusions of being an authoritative man because he is a high and dry refugee whose continued existence is dangling in the balance. Even though Ma gives him the leftovers to mollify his ego, it is a superior alternative than foraging for leftovers. Their changed status typifies the fluidity of life;whereby, one’s social status can transform any time.
“Belari smiled. Her face was mathematically sculpted into beauty, structured by focus-groups and cosmetic traditions that stretched back generations. Cocktails of disease prophylaxis, cell-scouring cancer inhibitors, and Revitia kept Belari's physical appearance at twenty-eight, much as Lidia's own Revitia treatments kept her frozen in the first throes of adolescence. "
Belari is fixated on youthfulness. Therefore, she invests in cosmetic treatments that will make her look like she is twenty eight even though she is an old woman. Belari confines Lidia and Nia so that she can project her enthrallment on them. Consequently, Lidia and Nia are subjected to Retivia treatments so that they can satisfy Belari’s fascinations.
“Belari pointed to the steel bracelet. "What's this?" Burson didn't flinch at her question. He had no fear. He was the only servant who had no fear. Lidia admired him for that, if nothing else. "To track her. And shock her." He smiled, pleased with himself. "It causes no physical destruction."
Burson puts the steel bracelet on Lidia so that it can he can stalk all her movements considering that she has an extraordinary predisposition for going into hiding. Lidia and Nia live like jailbirds even though Belari avers that her objective is to make them celebrities. The steel bracelet is not for supplementing Lidia’s prettiness; it is intended to make her a hostage that Burson can restrain effortlessly.
“Vernon Weir had made Belari famous. He'd paid the expense of her body sculpting and made her a star, much as Belari now invested in Lidia and her sister. But Master Weir extracted a price for his aid, Faustian devil that he was. Stephen and Lidia had watched as Weir took his pleasure from Belari, and Stephen had whispered to her that when Weir was gone, Belari would summon Stephen and reenact the scene, but with Stephen as the victim, and then he would pretend, as she did, that he was happy to submit.”
This passage brings forth multiple forms of objectification. First, Vernon Weir objectifies Belari when he sculpts her body with the intent of making money through her famous body. Second, Belari objectifies Stephen when he treats him as a sexual object to fulfill her fantasies. Even though Stephen acts that he is happy reenact the orgy scenes with Belari, deep down he hurts because he comprehends that Belari is using him. Third, Belari objectifies Lidia and Nia by taking advantage of their bodies in the same way that Vernon exploited her body.
"We all pay a price for our celebrity. Where the markets move, we must follow. None of us is truly free."
Being a celebrity does not come free of charge as the celebrity industry is subject to demand forces. So in the case of Vernon and Belari, the fluted girls are objects that are sought after by the demand side of the celebrity market. With their regular bodies, Lidia and Nia would not be traded in the celebrity market. Therefore, market players such as Belari and Vernon must abide by the rules of the market, failure to which they will not be competitive. The preeminent rule , in the celebrity market ,is the forfeiture of the natural body. Therefore, Lidia and Nia are preys of the ill-disposed market forces in the celebrity market.
