Thousand Pieces of Gold

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and analyzes the source text’s treatment of sexual enslavement, enslavement, sexual assault, death by suicide, anti-Asian racism, gun violence, and lynching. This section also quotes the text’s use of outdated terminology to refer to Indigenous Americans.

Polly is extremely loyal to her family and struggles to view them in a negative light throughout the novel, though she carries the burden of her father’s betrayal her entire life. The weight of this betrayal is often in the subtext of the story instead of outwardly stated. Polly often follows thoughts about her love for her father with the reality of her worth in his eyes, as though these two concepts are enmeshed and unable to be separated.

In the novel, Polly relies on her family nickname, qianjin, and the promise of her family’s love to sustain her through some of her darkest moments. Before being forced to go to the United States, Polly frequently prioritizes her family’s well-being over her own. She unbinds her feet so she can work in the fields with her father, ensuring that her little brothers have food to eat. When the bandits come to their home, the only reason