“What matters is what you do in this world, not how you come into it, she used to say to Tao Chi’en during the many years of their splendid friendship; he, however, did not agree.”

One of the novel’s themes is an exploration of the extent to which individuals have the freedom to choose the life they want. Eliza discovers in California that she can make those decisions and not allow her future to be determined by her illegitimate birth. In contrast, Tao comes from a culture that believes a person’s fate is determined by the actions of his ancestors before him (karma). Tao knows the names of even his remote ancestors in China.

“‘Your body will change, your thoughts will be jumbled, and any man will be able to do what he wants with you,’ Eliza was advised by Mama Fresia, from whom she could not hide her new state.”

Another theme in the book is the impact of overwhelming passion on a woman’s life. When Eliza begins to menstruate, she is prophetically warned by Mama Fresia of the danger of her new bodily desires. A second maternal figure to Eliza, Mama Fresia is a Mapuche Indian who is deeply connected to nature’s secrets.

“Nothing as perilous, you know, as the demon of fantasy embedded in every female heart.”

The patriarch of the Sommers household, Jeremy holds a very low opinion of women’s abilities. His comment concerns the danger of Eliza imagining that she will inhabit a higher place in society than is warranted by her humble beginnings. Jeremy’s personification of fantasy as a demon indicates how hazardous he thinks a woman’s imagination is—especially in view of his sister Rose’s scandalous affair.