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Chapter Three
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Rent Collector, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Power of Literature
Appearances, Judgment, and Hidden Character
Heroism and Self-Sacrifice
Hope and Action
Humor and Resilience
Summary
Analysis
Ki is not optimistic about Sang Ly’s plan, especially because they will have to buy drunken Sopeap rice wine each week, leaving them with even less money for food than they normally have. Ki is not convinced that someone as vile as Sopeap even knows how to read. However, Sang Ly reminds Ki that they will have extra money since Sopeap forgave the month’s rent. The following day, Lucky Fat helps Sang Ly find some pencils and old paper that is unmarked on one side. In the stillness of the night before the first lesson, Sang Ly looks at the old floral-printed clock Ki once found for her, hanging on their wall. It’s broken, but Sang Ly keeps it because she likes the look of it and hopes to repair it someday. It is a reminder that “sometimes broken things deserve to be repaired.”
The broken clock functions as a foreshadowed symbol of Sopeap herself. Just as Sang Ly is able to see the value and beauty of a broken object, which has no function at present but perhaps could be restored, she will discover that although Sopeap is broken in her own way as well, there is a hidden beauty and tremendous value in the old woman waiting to be recognized. Although Sang Ly seems to intuit this, Ki, who is more practical and pessimistic, does not share his wife’s capacity to see an individual’s full potential.
Themes
The next morning, Sang Ly cleans their hut until it is spotless and does every chore she can think to do, hoping to impress Sopeap when she finally arrives. But she does not arrive, and when Ki arrives home from work, Sang Ly is on the verge of tears. Ki is unsurprised, but does not mock Sang Ly for it. That evening, Sopeap arrives staggering and drunk, demanding the rice wine. Although Ki is determined not to give it to her since she did not fulfill her part of the bargain, Sang Ly eventually convinces him to let her have it, since she is still the Rent Collector and is obviously in some sort of pain. With the rice wine, Sang Ly offers her the pencils and then retreats behind the curtained doorway of their hut.
Sopeap’s inconsistency—she was sober and affable enough in her last appearance, but is now drunk and useless—suggests that she will continue to be a difficult individual to work with, even though she respected Sang Ly for standing up to her. Although Sang Ly knows nothing of Sopeap’s background as of yet, her willingness to give Sopeap the wine even though she has not earned it suggests that Sang Ly intuits that Sopeap is in tremendous pain and drinks to keep her emotional strife at bay.
Themes
