The Light in a Room of Darkness
“Luo started reading the book the very same night that Four-Eyes lent it to us, and reached the end at dawn when he put out the oil lamp and passed the book to me” (57).
“In that remote village tucked into a cleft in the mountain where my friend had fallen into a sort of stupor, I sat in the flickering light of an oil lamp and related the North Korean film for the benefit of a pretty girl and four ancient sorceresses” (39).
Sijie uses the symbol of lamp oil to emphasize the idea of hope in locating an opportunity to escape the village and furthering the boys’ learning. Although lamp oil might seem like an insignificant object the effect that it has on the lives of the main characters proves that it has a greater motif within the story. Relighting the lamp represents how the main characters are constantly having to find new hope when the old is extinguished. At the beginning of the book, lamp oil seems like an insignificant symbol, however, as the story progresses and the boys gain further access to Western culture through the forbidden literature, they have to relight the lamp more and more, symbolizing how their hope is positively surging.
