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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Leavers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Identity and Belonging
Migration, Change, and Happiness
Racism, Cultural Insensitivity, and Implicit Bias
Self-Deception and Rationalization
Parenthood, Support, and Expectations
Summary
Analysis
Acting as narrator once again, Polly explains that she leaves Fuzhou four months after Daniel goes back to America. Not only does she leave the city, but she also leaves Yong and, really, her entire life. “I decided to move to Hong Kong,” she notes, saying that while Daniel was in Fuzhou she pretended as if they’d never been separated—as if she’d never been sent to Ardsleyville. When he left, though, she realized she “could also leave.” On a ferry approaching Hong Kong, she glides through fog and feels “breathless with laughter.” “How wrong I had been to assume this feeling had been lost forever,” she narrates. “This lightheaded uncertainty, all my fear and joy—I could return here, punching the sky. Because I had found her: Polly Guo. Wherever I went next, I would never let her go again.”
Once again, Polly’s belief in the power of change to bring happiness comes to the forefront of the novel, as she leaves in pursuit of yet another life. Interestingly enough, the very act of leaving is what gives her peace, not the destination itself. It’s likely that she will soon grow tired of Hong Kong, but this doesn’t matter because she’s finally realized that she feels best when she’s in transit. Honoring her restless spirit, she is at one with herself as she uproots her life, ultimately prioritizing her independence and making peace with the fact that she can be herself wherever she goes.
Themes
