Motif of monologue
The narrator keeps interrupting the story of Natasha and Daniel to show us the inner conflicts in various characters. For example, while Daniel was having breakfast with his mother, his brother comes in and Charlie is conflicted about him. In another instance, while Irene who's a security guard is checking Natasha's items, Natasha has an inner monologue on how the guard was wasting her time. The monologues have an overall effect of showing the true emotions of the characters.
Allegory of life from Paintings
Daniel explained how his mother's paintings would change every couple of months. She was painting abstract paintings and then she changed to insects. This is an allegory of the life of the characters for life keeps changing as well. The characters' lives are not stable. For example, in Charlie's house Charlie had been the favorite son once he was accepted into Harvard but this changed when he got dismissed. In Natasha's house, one day she was sure of graduating and going to college in the United States and in the next she was being deported to Jamaica.
Natasha's father is a symbol of the dreams that immigrants have as they move into a new country
Natasha's father Samuel had immigrated to the United States from Jamaica with big dreams of becoming an actor and succeeding in life. But once he got there, this became hard since he could not get auditions, he was self conscious of his Jamaican accent and life in The United States was expensive. He is therefore a representation of the dreams that immigrants have as they move countries to look for greener pastures.
Journey motif
The characters are on a journey as the novel progresses. For example, Natasha's life :she had been born in Jamaica, she came to the U. S at eight and now she was being deported at sixteen. The characters are on the journey of life since the narrator has revealed their pasts and their futures in the novel.
Motif of stories within the story
The narrator keeps interrupting the main story of Natasha and Daniel with other stories involving the characters. For example, after Natasha passed the security guard Irene, the narrator told us of how her life was messy and she planned to kill herself. Another example is when Natasha was introduced to Daniel's father, the narrator tells the story of how Daniel's parents immigrated to the United States from Korea. The stories have the overall effect of giving more insight on the characters' lives.
