Everything Lady Arabella does is a calculated move. Do you think she’s motivated by an understandable quest to survive and look out for her children, or are her motivations evil? Why is she unable to have a truly loving parent-child relationship like the one Thomas created with Eden? By the same turn, what is at the root of Luis Felipe’s destructive bent—including the destruction of any emotional connection to his father? What does the novel say about creating loving bonds within a family?
Lady Arabella is motivated by power and appearances. She cares more about status than real connection, which is why she can’t have a close relationship with her kids—she sees them as part of her image, not as people.
Luis Felipe acts out because he’s angry and insecure. He grew up without real love, so he looks for attention in destructive ways.
The book shows that love in families can’t grow when people care more about image and control. Real bonds come from honesty and being accepted for who you are.
Initially, Lady Arabella’s manipulations and conniving seemed motivated solely from a place of narcissism, greed, and improving her own social status. However, towards the end of the book there was a telling memory where Arabella recalled a memory of a British woman cutting in front of the local Hong Kongers including herself in a cab line and yet, no one said anything about it. The British carried themselves with an air of superiority. The experience lead Arabella to hate the locals who allowed themselves to be walked on (as much as she hated the British). I believe overcoming this feeling of inferiority lead Arabella to obsessively strive to make herself and her family “someones.”
Her children were a means to an end - objects to facilitate her gains.
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Having grown up without much of a present father figure, I feel Luis Felipe acted out as a means to seek his father’s attention, rather than an act of rebellion. He was insecure, over-indulged (to offset his father’s absence and lack of affection), angry, and entitled. In the end Luis Felipe’s defiance and behavior were likely defense mechanisms to protect him from the relationship (or lack of) with his father as well as the lack of any another meaningful relationships in his life.
Lady Arabella is afraid of losing her money and status. She married in order to achieve this and to escape being looked down upon for being Chinese and having no power. I think she does love her children, but she worries that without money they will be relegated to a difficult life full of discrimination for being mixed race. She wants to avoid that for them and will do whatever she thinks is necessary to protect their - and her - position.