The Last Mapmaker

“And what if they knew the truth—that I wasn’t even on the ladder? That in a few months, when I turned thirteen, there wouldn’t be so much as a cake crumb, let alone a lineal celebration? […] If they knew the truth, they would think I was nothing. And who could blame them?”

This line establishes Sai’s main conflict against her low-class status. In the novel’s beginning, she rails against her lowly place in Mangkon’s class system but still accepts the basic ideology behind it. Sai’s experience of class-based shame is both the central conflict of her character and the source of her motivation to improve herself. Ultimately, it is her ambition that sets the plot in motion.

“One result of winning a war meant that all the conquered places got new names, which was a pretty good deal for someone in the mapmaking business.”

Sai has some insight into how people can benefit from imperialism early in story. However, it isn’t until she sees the lands Mangkon has conquered and colonized that she truly understands imperialism’s destructive effects. She eventually uses the knowledge she gains to redefine mapmakers’ roles in exploration missions.

“Without Paiyoon, without a diploma, and with no lineal to help dazzle my way through a job interview, the best I could hope for was to go back to the Harbor Market and deliver shrimp for the rest of my life.”

These details help to clarify how a person’s social status at birth can limit their social and economic mobility. Sai is smart and willing to work hard, yet opportunities aren’t open to her. Sai’s vision of a life spent delivering shrimp spurs her to action on her own behalf, and she defiantly seeks to use any means she can to overcome her lowly background.