Our Violent Ends

“In places like these, better service was expected. Ticket prices were sky-high to make the Grand Theatre an experience, what with its arched ceiling beams and wrought-iron railings, its Italian marble and delicate doorway lettering—only in English, no Chinese to be found.”

Juliette’s trip to the Grand Theatre highlights the interplay of European and East Asian influences on a modernizing Shanghai while demonstrating how glamour and elegance are denoted not only by the inclusion of European elements—English language, Italian marble—but by the exclusion of Chinese, as well. This exclusion is financial as well as linguistic; poorer residents of the city, more likely to be Chinese, can’t afford the tickets and can’t read the silent film. The “experience” of the Grand Theatre, then, is characterized by the exclusion of others.

“[Juliette] wondered if her tone still fooled anyone. In New York, she had been so good at lying, so good at playing pretend as an utterly different person. These last months had been wearing her down until there was nothing left of her but…her.”

Juliette feels more of her true self revealed in Shanghai than she did in New York. In some ways, this is ironic; at this point in the novel, she is lying to virtually everyone closest to her, intentionally making herself appear crueler than she is to keep her loved ones safe. This feeling about her true self indicates the extent to which Juliette’s return to Shanghai is a homecoming. Her true self is more the gangster princess than the American-educated socialite, and she feels the image of the violent, wily criminal leader fits her better than the airy Western persona she was forced to adopt when away from home.