Quy's symbolic journey
In a way, Quy is kind of like a sacrifice. He ends up separated from his family, and their safety comes at a cost—they sacrifice their connection to him. That doesn't necessarily mean that they did that on purpose, but that's precisely how Tuyen and Binh frame discussions about Quy. Tuyen feels they should consider his life a sacrifice, because they cannot ensure that he will be a healthy addition to the family, but Binh says, so what? He already is family by nature—now they can undo the damage. But before they can, they find him badly beaten. In light of his story, it is easy to see his story as a kind of "scapegoat" story. It represents the difficulty and trauma of refugee immigration.
Tuyen and Binh as light and dark
Although Binh is more hopeful than his sister, they aren't necessarily right or wrong. Tuyen's pragmatic, honest approach might seem dark to her brother who holds on to hope, but to Tuyen, he seems naïve and volatile. She has come to treasure the order that she has found in the darkness, and Binh is more concerned with changing things. They are opposites, so they symbolize the variety of answers people can have in response to life's challenges. They are like foils.
Carla as the femme fatale
Why should Carla be a femme fatale if she isn't even attracted to women, and if Tuyen and her friendship is healthy? Well, the answer is that Tuyen is experiencing a tremendous amount of desire for Carla, but it is unrequited. If she cannot move on from the fact that Carla isn't bisexual, she runs the risk of shaping her experience of Carla into some kind of rejection narrative, where Carla represents Tuyen's own fear of rejection. Carla is the novel's reminder that Tuyen is not a person who gets what she wants typically—her fate is more difficult than that.
The attack
Jamal's attack on Quy symbolizes the perverse nature of human violence. Jamal's reasons for violence were indefensible. His violence was heinous, motivated by power and money, tolerated by Jamal because he has learned to be dishonorable, making excuses for his indulgent, angry behavior, and for the way he mistreats others. Ultimately, Jamal's attack symbolizes that in the end, he is hurting his community.
The disparity between one life and another
Life is so engrossing that it is hard for people to remember that people exist all across this planet, and that life is different everywhere, because politics, government, religion, culture, and law (both legal and social or moral) all change. This is depicted in the novel in the form of interspersed short narratives about Quy's life in Vietnam, while his family moves on to a new life in a new nation that is more politically stable. The novel offers both points of view, the Western and the Eastern.
