Loyalty

The theme of loyalty runs throughout The Examination, providing the motivation for much of the action, particularly to the main character Lao Hong. Hong is devoted to his older brother, Lao Chen, in the way a mother is devoted to a son. Hong is relatively happy in his home village, despite the shame his drunken father brings on the family, yet out of loyalty to his brother and his mother's wishes, Hong decides to sacrifice his own happiness and security.

Hong's loyalty to his brother never wavers, even though he is sometimes frustrated by his brother's seeming ignorance of reality and his academic approach to everything. Hong does what he can to encourage his brother to follow through with the progressively harder examinations even when Chen gets distracted by the possibility of other paths. It is Hong's sense of duty to his mother and faith in the talents...