Searching for Sylvie Lee

“I was delighted to have a boyfriend with knowledge unfathomable to Ma and Pa.”

This quotation speaks to Sylvie’s characterization. It shows how she wants to enter a world not open to her immigrant parents. Caught between multiple cultures, Sylvie becomes focused on being as successful as possible in the United States. She was drawn to Jim’s wealth and his cultural knowledge in part because, at that time, she wanted so badly to escape the “ugly” young girl from a poor neighborhood that she had always seen herself as.

“She would laugh or commiserate and I’d always say ‘Sylvie, we tell each other everything, right? Right?’ And she’d answer, ‘Right.’ But now I’m beginning to realize that maybe I’ve always been the only one doing the telling.”

This passage speaks to Amy’s slow process of discovery in the novel, reflecting the risk of an isolated perspective. Although Amy thinks that she knows Sylvie better than anyone else, she comes to understand that nothing in her family is the way that it seems. These lines reveal Amy and Sylvie both to have been unreliable narrators of their own lives as well as the lives of others.

“We’re still foreigners despite the years we’ve lived here.”

In this passage, Amy recalls her family preparing for the “real” American Christmas that Sylvie wants. They still feel Chinese even after years of living in the United States. These lines speak to the theme of The Cultural Dissonance of Immigration. The Lee family, despite their best efforts, does not feel at home in their new culture, and there is strain within the family as different members strive to find a balance in different ways.

“Fool that I was, I always yearned for that which I did not have.”

This line speaks to Sylvie’s faulty perspective of her own life. Her marked lack of self-understanding is one of the contributing factors to not only her longstanding unhappiness but also her eventual death by suicide.

“I exit to find a wall of faces, a lot of white people in the Netherlands. I feel short and puny as the lanky Dutch hurry past me to embrace one another.”

This passage further illuminates the cultural dissonance that many immigrants experience. Sylvie feels out of place not only culturally but also physically, in a very literal sense. Her race has always set her apart in the majority-white spaces that she must navigate.

“Then we were both silent, thinking of the intervening years. How I could not bear to have one foot in both countries. How I had become aware of Helena’s underlying hatred of once I grew older. How my love for him and grandma had not been enough to overcome my fear of Helena. And my complicated, twisted relationship with Willem had not helped matters.”

Sylvie thinks these lines to herself while on the train with Lukas in the Netherlands. These points of tension represent the novel’s growing sense of suspense and the author’s slow reveal of the secrets of this family. At this point, Kwok is hinting that there is much more to the story; as a result, Sylvie’s disappearance will not be as easy to solve as Amy initially hoped.

“When I gave my Snow Jasmine away, I did not realize that I would never fully get her back. Sylvie left a piece of her spirit behind in Holland.”

Sylvie’s experience of cultural dissonance and dislocation is present throughout the novel. Sylvie’s identity, a mix of Chinese, Dutch, and American practices and traditions, often leaves her feeling pulled between these three cultures. Any effort to lean toward one culture seems to cost some piece of herself in another culture.

“I slid the rickety wooden drawer of the bedside table open and gasped when I saw what was inside. ‘Tasha!’ My old rag doll, the one grandma had made for me, and so much smaller than I remembered.”

Tasha is an important symbol of Sylvie’s link to Chinese culture even post-immigration. Helena’s cruel act of hiding Tasha greatly affects Sylvie. It is not until Helena returns Tasha to Sylvie’s family that Helena begins to atone for her years of cruelty and emotional abuse.

“We need to serve every type of Asian cuisine here. The Dutch cannot tell us apart, so when they come to a Chinese restaurant they expect Indonesian and Japanese cuisine.”

This passage speaks to the theme of The Harm of Everyday Racism and Prejudice. The Netherlands is such a racially and culturally homogenous country that many Dutch do not distinguish between different Asian nationalities. Rather than viewing Asian immigrants as complex individuals, many Dutch in the Netherlands view them through the lens of stereotype. This problematic perception is present in situations the family faces in the United States too, complicating their journeys as immigrants.

“This woman who seems to hate my sister so much is the one who raised her? Does she know something about Sylvie that I don’t?”

This passage speaks to one of the central issues of this text, Sylvie’s complicated parentage. The impact of a perspective that is flawed or incomplete emerges as more information comes to light about these two families, with Ma and Willem’s secret child reflecting how all the characters fabricate stories about themselves and one another. This passage also shows the motif of complicated parentage, which interacts with the subjects of cultural dissonance and immigration. The question of who Sylvie’s “true” parents are is just as tangled and complex as the question of which culture she “truly” belongs to.

“That woman has eaten vinegar. She will always be spiteful. It is a pity that she glimpsed the gold all those years ago, but there had only been rumors.”

Grandma speaks these lines about Helena, hinting at both the mystery surrounding her heirloom gold and that of Sylvie’s true parentage. Much of this novel exists in the nebulous cloud of falsities and rumors that various family members spin about one another. However, this passage in particular is important because it adds to Grandma’s characterization: Although elderly and near death, Grandma sees Helena for what the woman truly is and is not fooled by her slick and polished exterior.

“I could lie to myself, but the truth is that no one here knows Sylvie the way that I do. Sylvie would never willingly disappear like this without a word, despite Helena’s hints that she stole Grandma’s jewelry and ran off, despite Lukas’ convictions that she’s just taking some time for herself.”

The irony of these lines is that no one really knows Sylvie, not even Sylvie herself. Although various family members think that they are the ones who truly understand Sylvie, there is so much secrecy and unreliable narration in this family that everyone is shrouded in mystery.

“It is sad how trauma gets passed down from generation to generation.”

Although the concept of generational trauma is not mentioned explicitly very often within the narrative, it permeates the story and informs its thematic focus. In speaking these lines, Filip explicitly links the secrecy, lying, and pain in this family to generational trauma. Kwok urges her readers to appreciate how generational trauma often interacts with the experience of immigration, passed down through the years from parents to children.

“My love story started so many years ago. Pa and I began our marriage with the strength of a tiger’s head, but it slowly transformed into the weak tail of the snake.”

This passage speaks to the impact of betrayal and secrets on both the Lee and Tan families. Although not revealed until later in the narrative, the secret behind this fracturing of their marriage is that Sylvie’s true father is Willem, not Pa. This moment speaks to the theme of Flawed and Incomplete Perspective, demonstrating how Kwok’s characters often conceal the truth, leaving the reader as vulnerable to these secrets as the other characters.

“I had been stunned when he struck me the second time, during our initial screaming match about the affair, worrying about the neighbors hearing, not being smart enough to be afraid of him, on the floor, sobbing as he stormed out. By the time he returned, I had already changed the locks and thrown all of his stuff out on the curb.”

This passage shows Jim’s true nature and exposes him as another of the story’s unreliable narrators. Jim presents himself as an affable, intuitive listener; that portrayal is far from the truth of his personality. Under duress, the “real” Jim becomes visible.

“When you were different, who knew if it was because of your lack of social graces, or the language barrier or your skin color?”

This passage speaks to the theme of The Harm of Everyday Racism and Prejudice. In it, Sylvie speaks about her experiences as a young immigrant of color in the United States. This intersectional portrait of prejudice captures how class and race interact to exclude people from society.

“In love and in life, we never know when we are telling ourselves stories. We are the ultimate unreliable narrators.”

The idea of truth as multifaceted, coupled with a keen sense of limited perspective, is key to the novel’s most important themes. Each of the characters in some way is an unreliable narrator of both their own stories and the stories of those around them. These failings reflect a broader societal failure to appreciate the complexity of the immigrant experience, that is, to ignore or overlook the multiple cultures and great diversity at work.

“She can’t swim. There was a prophecy that Sylvie would die by water and so she’s supposed to avoid it.”

This passage is an example of foreshadowing, as Sylvie does die by water. Including this prophecy in the narrative is a way to signal to readers what the outcome of Sylvie’s story might be. It also has metaphorical weight, with the prediction of her death by drowning hinting at the overwhelming experience of enduring cultural dissonance since birth.

“I think that wherever you are, to live in the world as a white person is a completely different experience than a person of color. Discrimination is invisible to them because it does not affect them.”

This passage speaks to the theme of The Harm of Everyday Racism and Prejudice, highlighting Kwok’s interest in depicting the world as people of color experience it. Kwok emphasizes the impact of micro-aggressions, for example, which are often not easily identifiable to white individuals.

“He is almost foaming at the mouth, his nostrils flared, ‘Why did you have to stir everything up? Why could you not just leave it alone?’”

In this passage, as the truth about Sylvie comes out, Lukas is forced to come to terms with his own secrets and misdirection. He knows that his own complicity will soon be revealed. As with many of the other characters, there is much more to Lukas than he is willing to admit to.

“I burned incense by the altar. Mother Kuan Yin, please embrace the spirit of my daughter as I could not. My Snow Jasmine, forgive me for placing you in a mountain of blades and a sea of fire. You were but a kite with its string cut, blown away without recall.”

This passage is a representation of the motif of Buddhism. Religion is one way that various members of the Lee and Tan families retain their connection to their Chinese heritage and culture.

“I realize I have always taken refuge in the lie that Sylvie would take care of everything, that I could do nothing on my own. Perhaps I am more like Sylvie than I ever realized.”

This moment marks one of the instances in which Amy comes to better understand her own identity and her sister’s. Amy begins the narrative with a fixed idea of who Sylvie is and who she herself is. Ultimately, she comes to understand that they are both more complex than they seem.

“She left the room and returned with a homemade rag doll in her hands. Helena’s wan smile no longer contained a knife. ‘This was Sylvie’s. She named it Tasha. Grandma and Sylvie would have wanted you to have it.’”

This moment represents Helena’s transformation, indicating that reconciliation is possible within even the most damaged families. Although Helena functions as an antagonist throughout much of the narrative, this moment humanizes her and renders her a more complex character. It provides some closure for Helena’s character within the theme of Flawed and Incomplete Perspective as well, marking that even in her case, there is much more to learn.