Empire of the Sun

When Jim is in the camp at Lunghua, he cuts out and pastes part of a photograph, containing a couple, to his cubicle wall. As he says, “this unknown English couple […] had almost become his mother and father. Jim knew they were complete strangers, but he kept the pretence alive” (143). Early in the novel, Jim is separated from his parents. And despite his best efforts, he is not reunited with them until the war’s end. As such, Jim struggles during his years in the camp to, as he says, “keep alive the memory of his mother and father in order to sustain his confidence in the future” (175). While Jim is mature and independent for his age, he is still a child. He naturally misses the emotional intimacy and care provided by his parents. This is especially true given the dangerous, brutal, and chaotic world he inhabits after the attack on the International Settlement. He looks to maintain the memory of his parents and the possibility of seeing them again, to give his struggles in the present meaning and purpose.

However, as Jim’s identification of his parents with the strangers in the photograph shows, he starts to forget who his parents are.