The Expatriates

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child loss, kidnapping, and racism.

Mercy is one of the novel’s narrators and protagonists. She is a beautiful Korean American in her mid-twenties. She was raised in a middle-class family by her loving mother and abrasive father, who has alcohol use and gambling disorders. As a child, her mother hoped that Mercy would do well for herself, but Mercy constantly feared that she was disappointing her parents. A fortune teller predicted that she would never succeed, and at the beginning of the novel, she feels that she has proven the fortune teller correct. She worries that she is doomed to bad luck and that losing G is proof that she is fundamentally flawed.

Mercy exemplifies the novel’s theme of The Search for Identity and Belonging. Though she attended Columbia and majored in art history, she struggles to find a job and direction in life. Thinking back on her childhood, she wonders, “Where had that girl gone? The hopeful, innocent girl who didn’t have to act the clown to keep up. When had it all gotten so complicated?” (19). In America and Hong Kong, she feels out of place due to her race and social class.