October 1972: Key Events and Themes in Chapter 17
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
In October 1972, Soukei brings her five-year-old son Samson to Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park in Hong Kong, hoping the outing will lift his spirits after the death of his pet rabbit, Bunbun. Samson, an unusually quiet and inward child, stops near the zoo and refuses to speak. Soukei eventually learns he overheard workers say the park's elephant, Tino, is sick and not eating. Samson fears Tino might die the way Bunbun did. Soukei tries to comfort him with gentle talk about memories and love, while privately doubting her own words.
At the elephant enclosure, two older girls tease Tino, throwing popcorn at him and growing impatient when he refuses their vegetables. Samson notices the cruelty and wants to tell the girls the elephant is sick. When Tino knocks one girl down, a man in the crowd demands the animal be put down. Soukei studies Tino and sees a gaunt, dirty creature with torn ears and flies around him—a captive animal in poor condition. She recognizes something familiar in his resigned, mournful eyes. Samson, remarkably, understands that Tino lashed out because he had no words to ask the girls to stop. He also worries that pushing people is wrong, even when provoked, and asks whether it is acceptable to fight back if someone is mean first. Soukei, wondering whether her son is being bullied at school, gives him a careful answer about asking for help.
Back home, Soukei tells her sister Sulan about the day. Sulan reassures her that Samson's sensitivity is a sign of perceptiveness and intelligence, and she reminds Soukei that she herself was slow to make friends as a child until she met Haiwen. The mention of Haiwen stirs a dull ache in Soukei; she has tried hard to forget that he was in Hong Kong and that she once spent a night with him, briefly imagining he had come to save her from her marriage.
Sulan gives Samson a hand-sewn stuffed rabbit, which he immediately names Bunbun. She also teaches him about standing up to bullies, echoing their father's old words about choosing what is right over what is easy. When Saikeung returns home, he is furious that Soukei took Samson out of school and calls the boy soft. Samson bravely tells his father not to be mean to his mother. Saikeung turns pale with rage, accuses Soukei of coaching the boy, and demands an apology. Samson refuses. Sulan rushes in and defends him, trading sharp words with Saikeung, who storms off.
Afterward, Sulan scolds Soukei for yelling at Samson and for failing to protect him. She reminds Soukei of the brave girl she used to be and asks what their father would think. Soukei privately reflects that she married Saikeung partly to pay for Sulan's medical bills, and that the person she once was—Zhang Suchi—died the morning she left Haiwen sleeping in a hotel room. Sulan admits she failed to protect Soukei when they were young and apologizes for the cost of Soukei's sacrifice. She urges Soukei to help Samson so he can someday help himself.
Soukei resolves to raise Samson to be a good, empathetic man who chooses right over easy. She decides she will never take him back to the zoo, because she cannot bear to expose him to the suffering of a captive creature. The chapter closes with Soukei's aching awareness that her world is shrinking: once Sulan leaves, Samson will be all she has.
Key Events
- Soukei takes Samson to the amusement park to console him after his rabbit's death.
- Samson overhears that the elephant Tino is sick and fears another loss.
- Two girls tease Tino; the elephant knocks one down, and a man demands it be put down.
- Soukei notices Tino's poor condition and feels a kinship with the captive animal.
- Samson shows empathy for Tino and asks whether it is okay to fight back against bullies.
- Sulan gives Samson a handmade stuffed rabbit and teaches him to stand up for himself.
- Saikeung returns, is angry about the missed school day, and Samson tells him not to be mean to Soukei.
- Sulan confronts Saikeung; he storms off, and Sulan scolds Soukei for not defending herself.
- Soukei reflects on her marriage, her postpartum depression, and her night with Haiwen.
- Soukei resolves to raise Samson to be empathetic and decides never to return to the zoo.
Character Development
Soukei is the emotional center of this chapter. Her internal monologue reveals the depth of her unhappiness: she feels like an imposter in her own life, still unable to recognize the woman she has become. The chapter exposes her postpartum depression—the dark months when she imagined harming herself and her baby—and her secret guilt over the night she spent with Haiwen. Her decision to marry Saikeung for Sulan's sake is confirmed as a sacrifice that has cost her her identity. By the end, she finds a small, defiant purpose: shaping Samson into the kind of man his father is not.
Samson emerges as a deeply sensitive and perceptive child. He grieves openly, reads the elephant's distress, and understands that Tino's violence came from helplessness. His refusal to apologize to his father is a quiet act of courage, and his empathy—wanting to tell the girls that Tino was sick—shows a moral instinct that neither parent fully models.
Sulan acts as the moral counterweight to Saikeung. She is the one who names the problem—that Soukei has lost her fighting spirit—and who passes down their father's values to Samson. Her apology to Soukei for failing to protect her as a child adds a layer of guilt and tenderness to their bond.
Saikeung is shown as controlling and verbally abusive, belittling Soukei as dim-witted and calling Samson soft. His rage at being challenged by a child reveals how fragile his authority is.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Captivity and freedom. Tino the elephant is the chapter's central symbol. Soukei sees in his eyes something familiar—her own resignation to a life of confinement. Her decision to stop visiting the zoo is a small act of refusing to participate in suffering, and it mirrors her hope that Samson will never accept captivity as normal.
Death and grief. Bunbun's death opens the chapter and forces Soukei to confront how poorly equipped she is to explain mortality. Her clumsy comfort—memories keep the dead alive—is honest even if she doubts it, and it contrasts sharply with Saikeung's brutal dismissal of grief.
Choosing right over easy. Their father's words, passed down through Sulan, become the chapter's moral compass. Soukei recognizes the phrase and measures her own life against it, knowing she has chosen the easy path of submission rather than the right path of resistance.
Motherhood and maternal identity. Soukei's imposter feelings, her postpartum depression, and her fear that Sulan would make a better mother all circle the question of what it means to be a mother when you did not choose your life freely.
Bullying and standing up for oneself. The girls' cruelty to Tino, Samson's questions about fighting back, and Sulan's lesson about defending the weak all connect to the domestic dynamic, where Saikeung is the bully and Soukei has stopped defending herself.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a turning point for Soukei's inner life. It confirms the cost of her marriage—she married for Sulan's medical care, not love—and reveals the postpartum depression she has never spoken of. It also introduces the possibility that Samson may be Haiwen's son, a secret that will likely shape the novel's later revelations. The chapter establishes the central moral conflict of the book: whether Soukei can reclaim her fighting spirit and raise Samson to be the good man she hopes he will become, even as her world shrinks around her.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Soukei decide never to take Samson back to the zoo, and what does this decision reveal about her?
She decides this after seeing Tino's poor condition and recognizing her own captivity in the elephant's resigned eyes. The decision reveals that she can no longer pretend to participate in something she finds morally wrong, and it signals a small reclamation of agency. She wants Samson to learn empathy rather than to accept suffering as entertainment.
2. How does Sulan's lesson about bullies differ from Soukei's approach to protecting Samson?
Sulan teaches Samson that standing up for himself and for others is right, even when it is scary. Soukei, by contrast, wants Samson to stay safe by avoiding conflict, even if that means swallowing his pride. Their disagreement reflects a deeper divide: Sulan believes in empowerment, while Soukei, shaped by years of submission to Saikeung, believes survival requires compliance.
3. What does Soukei mean when she thinks that Zhang Suchi died the morning she left Haiwen sleeping in that hotel room?
She means that the person she was before—brave, sharp-tongued, full of possibility—was extinguished when she chose to walk away from the one man who might have offered her an escape from her fate. That choice, made partly to protect Sulan, sealed her into a marriage she did not want, and she has never recovered the self she left behind.