How Much Of These Hills Is Gold

“Ba will rot day by day in that bed, his spirit spilling from his body and moving into Sam till Lucy wakes to see Ba looking out from behind Sam’s eyes. Sam lost forever.” 

From the very beginning of the book, the author introduces the shifting personas of the characters. Sam is both a girl and a boy. Now, Lucy realizes that his attitude is also a carbon copy of Ba’s temperament.

“Silver and water could seal a spirit for a time, keep it from tarnish. But it was home that kept the spirit safe-settled. Home that kept it from wandering back, restless, returning time and again like some migrant bird.” 

Ma is explaining the meaning of her burial ritual. The emphasis on home has broader implications for Lucy’s own experience. Because she cannot find her own true home, Lucy wanders through life as incorporeal as a ghost.

“In Lucy’s fondest dream, the one she doesn’t want to wake from, she braves no dragons and tigers. Finds no gold. She sees wonders from a distance, her face unnoticed in the crowd. When she walks down the long street that leads her home, no one pays her any mind at all.”

Lucy expresses a paradoxical desire. In America her face makes her stand out in a crowd. She is painfully visible. However, if she were to travel to Asia, where she would be invisible, she would also feel alienated because China is not home.