Hang’s description of the Russian landscape is often devoid of color, which symbolizes the emptiness and mechanical state of her life as an exported worker. During this time of her life she has ceased to fight and resigned herself to her empty, lonely life of work. The weather in the USSR is oppressive. A “net of grey clouds” (37) hangs over the Kiev sky. This “net” illustrates that Hang is trapped in this life and this grey, hopeless world. The trees are leafless and barren silhouetted against this sky, reflecting Hang’s bleak outlook on life. Colorless white snow is also repeatedly described while Hang is in Russia. Although she appreciates its beauty, she describes the flakes as piercing, and their beauty causes her pain. Her sadness makes …show more content…
She perceives the color of the forest as the “color of tenderness” (39), illustrating that despite their physical and emotional distance, her love for her mother remains. This distance and difference in Hang’s outlook is conveyed through the contrast in color imagery associated with Russia and Vietnam. In Russia, Hang sees “earth covered with silvery grey flowers” (68). This draws contrast between the colorful foliage of Vietnam and the explicitly colorless foliage of Russia, reflecting that her life has been drained of its former hope and promise. She goes further, stating that the Russian landscape is a “discolored ocean, an expanse of sadness” (82), directly relating the coloration of her surroundings to her negative emotional state. As her emotional state has become more negative throughout the novel, colors more often portray Hang’s problems. As Hang looks out the window of her train, she sees a landscape “awash with fog” (129). The fog dissolves “all colors in a blur” (129). This blurring reflects Hang’s feelings of emptiness and monotony during her time in