Theme : Second Mrs Tang

The main theme of this story is respect. Ah Leng respects her father very much even though her father was unable to fulfilled her needs as they lived in an old house. She obeys whatever her father asked her to do. She never complains much as she is an obedient daughter. After becoming Mr. Tang's consubine, Ah Leng even respects Mrs. Tang. She followed whatever Mrs. tang asked her to do. She never argues or fights for her rights with Mrs. Tang. It showed in paragraph 1, line 15, page 29 "that he wanted no trouble with his wife and that she was to obey Mrs. Tang in everything". She does all the chores in the house and as obedient concubine to Mr. Tang, she fulfilled her duty as a wife to him.

The second theme of this story is sacrifice. The value of sacrifice was made by Ah Leng for her father. She was able to sacrifice her youth to marry someone much older as to fulfill her father's wish without knowing that it was her father's only choice as to pay his debt. Sacrifice was also made by Mrs. Tang by allowing Ah Leng into the family and become part of them as can be seen in line 1, paragraph 3, page 27, "Forcing a smile to her lips, she bent and accepted the cup of tea and touched its rim to her lips, once."

The next theme is poverty versus wealth. In this story, it shows the importance of money in the family where the poor ones are often being oppressed by the wealthy ones. The poor would do anything to step out of the miserable life including sacrificing their own future. Her father was willing to marry off his daughter as to bail himself out of the debt that he created and Ah Leng are victimized by serving Mr. Tang as a concubine out of her will and treated poorly by Mrs. Tang as we can see in line 2, paragraph 1, page 29, "Mrs. Tang, Tai Tai or Mistress, ordered her around and seemed irritated by her very existence."

The last theme is obedient. In this story, Ah Leng's character is described as being very obedient towards her father, Mr and Mrs Tang. She follows her father's wishes to marry her to Mr. Tang. She follows Mr. Tang order not to create problem with Mrs. Tang and do her duty as a concubine. She follows Mrs. Tang requests and treated her well when she was alive.