Our Missing Hearts

Appropriately, Margaret’s mission is centered on storytelling. This fits Ng’s overall message that stories are important because they can change hearts, minds, and policies. Notably, Margaret’s mission is nonviolent: She simply reveals the true impact of PACT, the impact that the government doesn’t want people to hear, as they both know people would likely rebel. Not everyone in Ng’s America is racist; many are simply keeping their head down, unaware that PACT has wreaked havoc on countless families. Margaret’s nonviolent protest echoes practitioners of civil disobedience such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Like these historical figures, Margaret is simply using powerful words to inform people and encourage empathy. Ng uses her own storytelling to champion storytelling as a path to saving society, a mode of individual power that can battle oppression. As an activist who uses stories to destroy the illusion of PACT, Margaret fulfills protester Marie’s belief in her words. Though Margaret initially didn’t want to be a part of the anti-PACT movement, she ends up using the very tool she was villainized for to make a major step toward healing society.

It is important that the stories Margaret tells via her bottle caps are about children. Regardless of differences in culture or politics, people often come together for the wellbeing of children. Though many believe that family separation is good for children, Margaret reveals that removing children is ultimately detrimental. When family units deteriorate, so does society; in a way, society operates as a large family. Though people may have more difficulty developing empathy for adults like Margaret, whom they view as in control of their “traitorous” actions, sympathy for children comes easier. Even people without children can empathize because they themselves went through childhood. Sadie’s story is an example of the psychological destruction of PACT. Instead of attending school and developing her own identity, Sadie takes on the adult responsibility of hiding and searching for her parents. PACT has robbed Sadie and countless children like her of their childhood. No matter how badly America wants to rebuild from the Crisis, Margaret accurately predicts that Americans are unwilling to risk children in the process.

In Part 3, Ng centers much of the side plot on Sadie and Bird, who are torn between embracing childhood and worrying about adult issues. In the countryside, left on their own in idyllic privacy, Sadie and Bird play innocently. It has been a long time since they were free to just be children, without anyone watching them. PACT is not just dangerous to society because it separates families; it also makes everyone, including children, feel in constant danger of being accused of something false. Sadie and Bird’s time in Connecticut is a reminder that childhood innocence and freedom are pivotal to human development—thus heightening the stakes of Margaret’s message. Overall, Ng utilizes her plot and characters to warn contemporary America about the dangers of authoritative power.

Just as Bird did in Part 2, he and Sadie evoke the rules of fairy tales. When unexpected evil befalls their fairy tale, they make up tests to attempt to control the outcome. They stay up all night, feeding the fire in Domi’s fireplace, convincing themselves that as long as it burns, Domi and Margaret will appear. This dark game demonstrates that children can sometimes internalize blame for bad things happening to and around them. It also further emphasizes Sadie and Bird’s youth, which Ng wants to keep intact. However, the children’s game of keeping the fire going is simply a way of comforting themselves, as they have no other options.

Like a true storyteller, Margaret gets carried away with her storytelling. Though she had timed her mission to account for her escape, she is swept away by the power of words—and punished for it. Ng doesn’t reveal what exactly happens to Margaret; she could have been arrested, or killed. This open nature is important to the structure and purpose of Ng’s ending. Not all stories have a happy ending, which disrupts Bird’s framing of his own story as a fairy tale. As it is in reality, life is complicated. However, Bird chooses to retain hope that he will see his mother again, highlighting Ng’s message about the powerful bond between mother and child. He trusts his mother’s ability to survive and endure. No matter what happens, their time together has given him purpose. By leaving the ending open, Ng challenges readers to consider the fate of her America—and whether or not it will significantly change. She wants people to consider their own culpability as individuals within a society. Furthermore, by leaving the ending open, Ng celebrates the power of stories as never-ending. The conclusion charges Bird with continuing his mother’s legacy by seeking out her poetry—as most copies have been destroyed. No matter Margaret’s fate, Bird will keep her alive through poetry.