Significance of Ji Lin's Blue Dress

After meeting Ji Lin at William Acton's party, Ren refers to her always as "his girl in blue." The blue of her dress symbolizes the calm of family, the same color of the river where both she and Ren meet his brother, Yi. Ren is too happy to call Ji Lin his older sister: "they're part of a set, she and him; he's known it all along" (224). The river of his dreams, her dreams, and Yi's experience in limbo is symbolized by the blue of her dress; together, by the hands of fate, they are made family.