When the Emperor Was Divine

The mother is a character who is attuned both to the brutal necessities of their time and to the seemingly fewer essential demands of vanity. On the one hand, she seems calculating and unsentimental as she packs up the home, kills the dog, releases the pet bird, and prepares in a practical way for the brutal trip. This characterization might seem to indicate that she is entirely practical. But she is also invested in the non-practical concerns of her image, rationing her lipstick and her Ponds cream, lamenting that if she has bags under her eyes, her husband might not recognize her when they are reunited.

Her preoccupation with her looks is not, however, an indication that she is a shallow character. Her ability to maintain her looks is essentially linked to her ability to maintain her identity, and the question of the lipstick and the Ponds cream becomes symbolic of that struggle to hang on to her own face and identity. Later, when her depression has become overwhelming, she relinquishes her attempts to control her appearance, wearing a scarf on hear head, along with baggy trousers, as she stares out the window. The reader sees the link between the idea of controlling your own identity and feeling a sense of agency in the course of your own life.