63 pages • 2-hour read
The Eyes Are the Best Part
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Blue Eyes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, mental illness, graphic violence, death, and emotional abuse.
Blue eyes emerge as a central symbol in The Eyes Are the Best Part, evolving from a physical marker of difference to a target of violence and Consumption as Power. When blue eyes are first introduced in the narrative, it’s through the character of George, whose blue eyes are the first distinguishing feature Ji-won notices. George uses those eyes to maintain control and project his desires, as when he leers at Asian women, including Umma’s daughters. Blue eyes thus first figure as a symbol of white male power and, in particular, that power’s relationship to the white male gaze.
The symbol develops additional layers of meaning through Ji-won’s increasing fixation on blue eyes. Her research in the library, where she examines images of blue eyes and questions their physical properties, marks a transition from passive observation to active interest. The text establishes a hierarchy of eye color through Ji-won’s thoughts, with blue eyes becoming preferential targets compared to brown eyes, which she associates with contamination—a sign of internalized racism. Ji-won’s desire to eat the eyes is therefore both a rejection of and a capitulation to white supremacy; she destroys the eyes through her consumption of them, but she also symbolically assumes the power that blue eyes represent (rather than, for example, finding strength in her heritage). The symbol’s significance expands through Ji-won’s victim selection. Each of her victims possesses blue eyes, creating a pattern that connects them to George and underscores the simultaneous hatred and desire that characterize Ji-won’s relationship to white male power (hatred of its effects on her versus desire to have that power for herself). The symbol reaches its culmination in Ji-won’s final murder of George in the hospital, where the consumption of his blue eyes represents both the end of his specific threat and a symbolic (if ambiguous) victory over what his eyes represent.
Paper Flowers
After George proposes, Umma becomes obsessed with making paper flowers for wedding decorations. As George becomes emotionally distant, Umma continues to make the flowers, with their creation being a way to assuage her anxiety while continuing preparations. In that way, the paper flowers represent both creative resilience and artificial hope through their connection to Umma’s wedding preparations, as she tries to manufacture celebration in her deteriorating circumstances.
The physical properties of paper flowers contribute to their symbolic weight. Unlike real flowers, they neither grow nor die, existing in a permanent state of artificial beauty. This quality connects to Umma’s attempts to maintain appearances despite the relationship’s decay. The paper flowers’ accumulation in the apartment also mirrors the accumulation of signs of George’s disinterest, creating a contrast between surface decoration and underlying reality.
When George destroys Umma’s preparations during his rage over his sabotaged presentation, the flowers start to embody physical and symbolic violence, representing the shattering of Umma’s constructed hopes. Umma’s continued creation of these flowers after this incident demonstrates their connection to patterns of denial and repetition established in her earlier life, particularly her childhood experience of waiting for her parents’ return.
Dreams
In The Eyes Are the Best Part, a motif of dreams blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination, particularly through Ji-won’s increasingly violent dream sequences and episodes of sleepwalking. These dreams often center on eyes as objects of fear and desire, establishing connections between unconscious impulses and conscious actions. For instance, Ji-won’s dream of her old home with eyes watching from the walls introduces the connection between domestic space and patterns of control. The text connects these dream eyes to the actual eyes of George, an intrusive and surveilling presence in Ji-won’s current home, establishing dreams as a space where threats become visible before conscious recognition. The transformation of Umma into a giant eyeball in another dream sequence links consumption, family, and observation.
Dreams in the narrative often precede violent actions, creating a pattern where dream violence manifests in reality. Ji-won’s dreams of confronting George establish scenarios that later play out in modified form, while her dream of killing Alexis in self-defense reveals underlying tensions in their relationship. The text employs these elements of foreshadowing while maintaining ambiguity about whether the dreams predict or inspire subsequent events. In his way, dreams become spaces where repressed trauma and desire intersect, creating a symbolic landscape where psychological truth becomes visible.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events