Race and ethnicity
To be Vietnamese is not necessarily a positive thing in the narrator's opinion. Although the heritage and culture should be perceived through the lens of pride and identity, the boy sees the image of a butterfly trapped in glass with an attachment that proves his own sentiments; he feels trapped in his identity. Because of racism and oppression, his experience of being Vietnamese is frustrating and disappointing. The novel explores the damage that racism does in the youth of an oppressed people group.
Oppression and opportunity
Although the signs of oppression are not overt, they are clearly evident. Notice that the narrator and his family is in desperate need of opportunity. Their chronic frustration around opportunity is the sign of oppression. Through this silent imagery, the boy realizes as time goes by that although he hopes things will get better, they never seem to improve. Gradually, the lack of opportunity rots and festers, and what is left is hopelessness and dysfunction.
Hope and hopelessness
There is a tonal shift in the novel when the sister leaves the narrator alone with his dysfunctional family. Her abandonment shows him that his emotions of hopelessness and frustration might be trustworthy and correct, although he fights them to stay hopeful. If he is in a hopeless situation, he needs to escape it, but this leads him to a dilemma. Is his situation hopeless or not? The tension is an imagery that he endures. It affects him as a chronic mental imbalance.
Mental illness
The narrator experiences a field of dysfunctional moments that reveal the imbalances in his family, and this creates an imagery of mental illness. The boy is forced to watch his family fall apart day by day. Their environment is also dysfunctional (his landlord murders a woman for instance), and so his paranoia about health and safety is never assuaged. When the mother shaves her head, it is extremely distressing to the family, because it is unignorable proof that their experience of life is hellish and unhealthy. The novel seems to cry out for mental health experts and social workers.
