novel lastling themes

Friendship / Cultural Clash / Accepting Difference
Represented through
Friendship between
Geng-sun (Yeh-Teh)
Tahr (Monk in Training)
Paris (American-New Yorker)
All from different backgrounds --- Accepted differences in each other’s personalities’ e.g.:
Tahr learned to communicate in a unique way with the yeh-teh.
Became Paris’ friend even though she was a restless person and had betrayed him once.
Paris learned there were good people in the world and all were not like Uncle Franklin and his group.
They all became loyal friends despite the great cultural differences e.g.:
They all saved each other’s life at some point.
The yeh-teh saved Tahr many times – from the rebels and the guard at Franklin’s camp.
Paris also helped them escape. Tahr helped the yeh-teh to escape from the camp.
Violence by Violence
Represented through
Darwa
Life of Darwa, he lost his family. As his Buddhist family was killed when their village was attacked, he was brought up in a violent environment and grew biter and bitter and then lost the respect for the human life after seeing too much killing and hence became violent.
Tahr
On the other hand, Tahr was shown love and affection and taught to live peacefully by Shengo; hence he turned out to be a peaceful non-violent character.
Geng-sun
Geng-sun lost her mother to violence and she had to save herself constantly from the different groups of rebels which also became violent when there was no choice to save the life of her friends.

Madness
Represented through
Franklin’s madness for luxuries (bringing expensive material along in the jungle, getting dressed up formally for dinner in jungle, bringing expensive wine and even gilded chairs)
Franklin’s madness to be one of a kind and train Paris to be just like him.
Franklin’s mad obsession for an idea as Renaud explained to Paris.
Franklin’s mad obsession for capturing the yeh-teh and rare creatures.
Franklin’s madness after breaking of icy control at the massacre of the group by the rebels.
Ultimate Diner’s Club madness as they used to arrange formal dinners in the jungle with some of the most exotic chefs and much expensive and rare ingredients and some fine and delicate crockery.
Mad hunger as Tahr used to say the hunger of white people is strange.
Life on the Edge
Represented through
Life is portrayed as a wheel or a circle according to Shengo and in the end, Tahr realizes every point of the life is on the edge. No telling when the life of the character is going to change completely. All characters’ lives were at the edge in the novel.
Shengo’s – he died in a blink of an eye.
Tahr’s – he lost his master and came to know people of the different world, made new friends and also became independent.
Paris’s – she made new friends learned to become a better person in their company. She also learned that she was not like Uncle Franklin, and became independent from the influence of her uncle.
Geng-sun’s – she lost her mother, made and saved new friends, became independent and probably sacrificed her life for her true friends.
Franklin’s – as his life changed, his life became on the edge; he lost his friends, sanity, the respect of his niece and then lost his life as well.
Members of the Ultimate Diner’s Club also had their lives on the edges as all of them died.