The rich only care about themselves
A common motif that appears in the book is the idea that the rich generally refused to help the poor. When various public buildings were destroyed by floods and by attacks, the rich and the ruling class refused to help the poor people and rebuild the buildings. This happened time and time again and various ministers write how the people suffered because of this because they no longer had access to education and protection from the state. The idea that the rich only care about themselves is a common motif in the book.
Symbol for cunningness
An animal that appears more than often in the stories is the fox. The animal is used here as a symbol for cunningness as every time it is mentioned, someone tries to fool another person into doing something not in their advantage. Especially when talking about healers who communicated with the spirits, the various writers mention how they would use fox spirits to find more about a person’s illness.
Women as healers and as being able to talk with the spirits
Another common motif in the book is the idea that only women were healers. When the writers mention healers or people who can communicate with the spirits, it is always a woman who has the ability to do it. In most cases, the women used various tricks to make people believe they are able to talk with spirits such as ventriloquism and other tricks.
The rich get richer
One of the common motifs in the book is the idea that the rich get even richer while the poor are oppressed both by the rich and by the government as well. Time and time again, we see how the rich managed to evade taxes and reduce the amount of money they had to give to the government at the expense of the poor people who then had to be taxed even more to cover the expenses. This remains a common motif until the end, with the rich continuing to behave in that manner.
Symbol for social status
When talking about the widows in the country, the author mentions the ox, an important animal for many families. An ox was seen as being necessary in a family especially considering how the vast majority of people relied on agriculture to survive. Because of this, the ox was seen as a social status symbol. The families who owned an ox were seen as being wealthy while the people who could not were seen as being extremely poor.
