What is a reoccurring theme in Wild Swans? Also, what is the general tone throughout the book?

I think women's rights is a motif in this book. The first of the Three Daughters is part of the Old China, where women were made to wrap their feet from infancy almost, to prevent the girls' feet from becoming big; according to fashion, big-footed women were not considered attractive, so in a desperate attempt to marry away their daughter to a good family (for financial reasons), Chinese families destroyed the feet of the girls in China by wrapping them tightly and restricting their growth. Also, this novel depicts the author's grandmother and her awkward, humiliating relationship to her owner, who buys her from her father as a concubine. The fact that in this story, women are literally owned as slaves in this way shows the historical need for women's rights movements in China.

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