Family

The most prevalent theme in the novel is the importance of friends and family. Xingyin struggles to prioritize her family throughout the novel because romance keeps getting in the way. But she returns to this moral compass of family over and over. Through the regression to her unwavering relationships she is able to recognize the vitality in having people around you that are not hindered by the prospect of romance and simply love you for the way you are. From the beginning of the story, Xingyin promises to herself to protect her family, her mother and Ping’er: “I could not let them catch us. I could not let my mother and Ping’er be hurt. But weak as I was, there was only one thing I could think of, which might very well be the last thing I ever did” (22). She tells herself that even...