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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—The Great Famine:
In the letter that Jack’s mother writes to him before he dies, she alludes to the Great Famine, as seen in the following passage:
I was born in 1957, in Sigulu Village, Hebei Province. Your grandparents were both from very poor peasant families with few relatives. Only a few years after I was born, the Great Famines struck China, during which thirty million people died. The first memory I have was waking up to see my mother eating dirt so that she could fill her belly and leave the last bit of flour for me.
The Great Famine was a human-made famine that took place between roughly 1958 and 1962. In this short period, as Jack’s mother notes in her letter, 30 million people died (at least according to certain estimates). This was due to autocratic leader Mao Zedong’s subordinates in the Chinese Communist Party intentionally inflating crop yield estimates, which led to the majority of food that peasant farming communities grew going to people in the cities, leaving the peasant farmers to starve to death. It is likely that Liu borrowed real stories of peasants eating dirt to survive, as Jack’s mother does in the story.
This allusion is significant because it helps both readers and Jack understand the amount of suffering that Jack’s mother endured in her life, and why she ended up marrying an American stranger who “bought” her after seeing her photo in a catalog. As she goes on to describe in her letter, both of her parents died, and she had no way to survive apart from signing up for this service. It is only after reading his mother’s story in her letter—and finally seeing her full personhood—that Jack mourns the loss of her and is able to access his love for her again.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Cultural Revolution:
In her final letter to her son (in which she details her life before coming to the U.S.), Jack’s mother alludes to the Cultural Revolution, as seen in the following passage:
Then came the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Neighbor turned on neighbor, and brother against brother. Someone remembered that my mother’s brother, my uncle, had left for Hong Kong back in 1946, and became a merchant there. Having a relative in Hong Kong meant we were spies and enemies of the people, and we had to be struggled against in every way.
The Cultural Revolution, as Jack’s mother notes in her letter, started in 1966 and lasted a full 10 years. This revolution was led by Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, who wanted to purge China of its lingering capitalist and bourgeois elements. As Jack’s mother describes, having relatives in Hong Kong would make Communists (or Communist sympathizers) believe that members of a given family “were spies and enemies of the people, and […] had to be struggled against in every way.” This is because Hong Kong was a British colony at the time and, as such, was associated with capitalist western values. These values were seen as a threat to the Communist Party and to its goals with the Cultural Revolution.
This passage is notable because, in addition to teaching Jack (and readers) about the forces in Chinese history that led to his mother’s immigration to the U.S., it helps him understand the amount of suffering she endured from such a young age. (She was nine years old when the Cultural Revolution began.) In seeing his mother’s full story—and therefore her full humanity—Jack finally accesses his love for her again, writing over and over at the bottom of the letter the Mandarin character for “love.”
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Explanation and Analysis—Star Wars:
Near the beginning of the story, when describing a playdate between Jack and his friend Mark, Liu alludes to the Star Wars movies, as seen in the following passage:
Mark, one of the neighborhood boys, came over with his Star Wars action figures. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s light saber lit up and he could swing his arms and say, in a tinny voice, “Use the Force!” I didn’t think the figure looked much like the real Obi-Wan at all.
Together, we watched him repeat this performance five times on the coffee table. “Can he do anything else?” I asked.
Star Wars is a movie franchise that spans the 1970s through today. The first three films—A New Hope, The Emperor Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi—came out between 1977 and 1983 and were immediately popular, leading to the creation of action figures and other merchandise.
In the above passage, Liu notes how Mark “came over with his Star Wars action figures,” including an Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure who can say “Use the Force!” This was a phrase popularized by the first trio of movies.
It is notable that Jack, who is used to playing with magical origami animals that can come alive (handmade by his mother), is not impressed with Mark’s Obi-Wan action figure, noting how he didn’t “look much like the real Obi-Wan at all” and even asking Mark, “Can he do anything else?” This is one of the ways that Liu contrasts Chinese and American cultures, hinting at how Chinese culture embraces magic and fluidity in relation to art while American culture favors mass production and rigidity.
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