PLT Symbol Analysis

PLT, an acronym for Precious Little Treasure, is Adeline’s pet duckling given to her by a family friend. PLT is a symbolic parallel to Adeline herself, particularly showing her emotions and her need for love. Adeline cherishes her pet, giving it all the love she has to offer and exulting in the feeling of being needed by another. This partially echoes the love that Aunt Baba and Ye Ye have for her—particularly in the designation, “precious,” which they often use for her—but even more so demonstrates the love that Adeline should have received from Father and Niang. Adeline exhibits courage when she digs in the garden for worms to feed PLT even though Father’s dog is threatening her—just as Father should have had the courage to protect his original children from his new wife. In contrast to Niang, Adeline feels guilty when she tries to feed PLT a worm but has not brought such a treat for all the other ducklings, intuiting that such favoritism is unhealthy and unjust. The way in which Father brings about PLT’s death highlights his abject cruelty and parallels his utter disregard for Adeline’s emotional well-being and need for love: One evening, Father decides that he want to watch his dog kill one of the children’s ducklings for his own amusement, even though the family knows that Adeline loves PLT more than anything in the world. This highlights Father’s near-psychopathic level of cruelty and apathy towards his daughter. Like Adeline’s wellbeing, PLT does not die immediately, but slowly succumbs to its wounds overnight as Adeline grieves it and wishes the world could be a different place.