Summary
A small, winged creature lands on a patch of ground and hops around in search of something. Eventually, it picks up a twig or leaf and flies again with the object in its mouth. It brings the object to the man’s room and drops it in the clay pot the food seller and his wife gave to the man. The pot sits on the man’s vanity, before a mirror and a lantern.
The man sits and writes a letter, then folds the paper into a bird shape. He puts the paper bird and a small stack of cash into an envelope. He asks an elderly woman for directions, then finds a type of computerized post box. He puts the letter in and watches with suspicion as the box lifts into the sky, at the end of a line connected to a balloon.
The thumbnail images on the next page show a large, tree-sized leaf mulching in the rain where it stands. A flower emerges from the leaf’s center, growing larger before bursting into dandelion-like floating seeds that shed into the breeze. The flower left behind then develops large seeds that fall to the ground to be picked up by rodent-like creatures. Without seeds, the plant resembles a tree in full leaf. With the onset of cold temperatures, the plant loses its substance, leaving an intricate web structure that gets half-buried in snow.
The city is covered in a blanket of snow. The clay pot on the man’s windowsill is now full of freshly hatched flying creatures whose mother comes to drop worms into their open mouths. The man and his pet are on the man’s bed. The man looks at the photo of his family. Suddenly, the pet jumps up and goes down the ladder. The man follows. The pet is waiting eagerly by an envelope on the floor by the mail slot.
The man finds a letter folded into a bird shape in the envelope. He smiles, grinning widely as he reads. He looks out his window and sees a balloon in the sky. He is then outside, fully dressed now, jogging through the city with his gaze directed up. He sees the balloon’s container land in an open snow-covered space. He shouts out, then runs ahead so fast his hat flies off. His wife and daughter hear him and run to meet him. The family embraces, their footsteps little black dots coming from either direction.
Part VI opens with a three-by-three thumbnail page of illustrations that echo the objects from the book’s first page. Now, instead of a bird, the paper is folded into the shape of the man’s pet. The family’s table is set with peculiarly shaped ornate coffee cups and utensils. The family portrait shows the man and his wife have lines in their faces and their daughter has grown taller. The next page shows the family smiling at a table together. They are surrounded by the strange ornate furnishings of the new culture.
The daughter puts on her boots. Their pet gives the girl her hat, which has the same pattern as the hat she wore at the beginning of the book. The pet accompanies the girl as they go out and explore. The girl marvels at the illuminated orbs in the air.
The book ends with the girl retrieving several small vegetable-like objects from behind a small door set in a wall of similar doors. She notices a woman looking around. The woman holds a map. The girl approaches and offers her help. The woman stoops down to show where on the map she would like to go. The last page shows the girl smiling as she points in the direction the woman must walk. At the woman’s feet is a battered suitcase. At the girl’s feet is the family pet.
Analysis
In an earlier section of the book, the food seller and his wife gave the man a clay pot that he put on his windowsill. Part V opens with images that reveal that the clay pot is used as a nest for flying, bird-like creatures. The actions of the bird building its nest in the pot symbolically mirror the man’s own aspiration to raise enough money for his family to join him in the new world—to build his own nest. To emphasize the symbolic resonance further, Tan depicts the man folding his letter into the shape of a bird and putting it in the same envelope as the cash he sends home to his wife and daughter.
The page that shows the life cycle of a leaf- and flower-like tree illustrates to the reader that time is passing. Now it is winter, and the man sits in his room while the clay pot on his windowsill sits full of baby birds. In contrast to earlier illustrations of the man’s room, Tan now shows the room as being full of personal possessions; this signals that the man has settled into his surroundings somewhat as he has been building a life for his family.
The theme of companionship arises with the sequence of illustrations that show the man reuniting with his wife and daughter. His eagerness to see them is evident in the way he rushes out of his room as soon as he spots their balloon in the sky. He rushes across the snow-covered city, never taking his eyes off the balloon. The man’s eagerness to reunite with his family and finally regain the companionship he feels with them is mirrored in his family’s own eagerness to run across the snow to him. Tan depicts the emotional climax of the book by illustrating the reunion from a wide perspective that shows how both the man and the wife and daughter have left footprints in the snow as they’ve run to meet each other in the middle of the empty field.
The final part of the book shows a six-by-six grid of images that refer back to images that opened the book. However, the objects that spoke of the family’s old life have been replaced by their new-world equivalents. Instead of the spare, familiar aesthetic, the objects bear the ornate style of the new culture. And instead of the somber image of the man and his wife touching hands over a packed suitcase, the family of three laughs together at their table with their pet at their feet. With this image, Tan shows that the man has achieved the life he hoped for at the bringing of the book.
The novel ends with a sequence of images that break with the convention of staying close to the man’s point of view. As the little girl ventures out with the family pet, Tan follows her excited run through the safe streets of her neighborhood. The girl sees a young woman who is struggling to read a map and immediately offers her assistance. The girl’s modest generosity refers back to the man’s first day in the new world, when a stranger offered to show him where he could rent a room. The little girl has become so well-adjusted to the new culture that she can give directions like a local. This shows that everything the man went through while trying to attain the life he aspired to was worth it. Beyond adapting to the new culture, his family have become a part of it, and they are maintaining it as a place where other immigrants can be welcomed and make a new life.
