These Violent Delights

The narrator of the novel switches between third person limited narration to follow the experiences of different characters and objective third person to show a bird’s eye perspective of the city. How does these switches in perspective allow the narrator to explore the impacts of gang violence and colonization on the city as a whole?

The setting of the novel in 1920s Shanghai is integral to the novel, although most of the events in the narrative are fictional. How does the novel’s depiction of Shanghai reveal the political and economic conflicts occurring in China during this era?

How does the novel use the madness as an allegory (an extended metaphor) for the violence of capitalism? How do the speculative elements of the novel (the insects and the monster) contribute to this allegory?

How does Gong connect the issue of European imperialism in Shanghai to racism in the United States?

Do you think that the novel supports the claim that humans are inherently violent? Why or why not? How does the novel portray violence’s role in society?

To what extent are Juliette and Roma’s past relationship and current attraction based on a desire for an idealized romance? Do they truly love one another?

How does Gong use the imagined epidemic of the madness to show people’s reactions to a crisis? What do the characters’ responses reveal about the ways people cope with an unseen threat?

Juliette believes that she is responsible for saving “her city, her gang, her family” (363), so she does what is necessary to achieve her aims. Is she the hero she believes herself to be? Are her methods just?