It’s not hard to see why Babel had such a strong effect on its readers.
- For starters, we never learn Robin’s real name. His Chinese identity was both literally and metaphorically stripped away from up, except for the parts that would value the British empire.
- There’s also the fact that despite how horrible his father is, Robin still craves his approval.
- All of the cohort, save Letty, are trapped in a Catch-22 Dilemma. Either they betray their motherlands and serve the forces destroying them, or they resign themselves to a life of discrimination, and in Robin’s case, poverty.
- The novel begins with Lovell finding Robin lying next to his mother’s dead body. Later on, Robin tells him he forgot his mother.
- Mrs. Piper tells him that they were in China for two weeks, meaning Robin’s mother could’ve been healed.
- A combination of this and Nightmare Fuel is when Robin embarrasses Lovell by getting distracted by his book and being three hours late to class. So what’s Lovell’s response? To violently beat his son with a fireplace poker.
- What’s even sadder is that Robin doesn’t even consider running away because he isn’t used to better treatment.
- On his first visit to Lovell’s after enrolling at Oxford, Robin argues with him over Britain’s hoarding of silver. It ends with Robin saying “I just want to know why silver couldn’t save my mother.”
- Almost everything about Griffin’s character. He was taken away from China at a younger age than Robin was, and was abused, then thrown away when he wasn’t useful enough to the empire.
- Anthony’s supposed death, and the fact that very few Babel scholars mourn him, despite the contributions he made to silverworking.
- While the Univ Ball starts out fine, it ends in disaster after white students attempt to sexually assault Letty and Victoire, leaving the former outraged and the latter in tears.
- After Ramy and Victoire are caught stealing from Babel by the wards, Robin takes the blame and lets Lovell in on everything he knows about Hermes, thinking he did the right thing. Victoire and especially Ramy don’t feel the same way, resulting in a rift growing between the cohort.
- In Canton, Robin takes a walk and comes across an opium dem, and is reminded of how his family lost all their wealth thanks to his uncle’s addiction, which was caused by the British empire importing opium into China.
- Afterwards, Robin, overwhelmed with guilt, contemplates jumping off a bridge, before Ramy talks him out of it. We’re then treated to a conversation between the two about how their respective motherlands are being exploited and destroyed by the same force.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I saw.’ He rested his elbows against the bridge and sighed. ‘Rows and rows of flowers. A whole ocean of them. They’re such bright scarlet that the fields look wrong, like the land itself is bleeding. It’s all grown in the countryside. Then it gets packed and transported to Calcutta, where it’s handed off to private merchants who bring it straight here. The two most popular opium brands here are called Patna and Malwa. Both regions in India. From my home straight to yours, Birdie. Isn’t that funny?’ Ramy glanced sideways at him. ‘The British are turning my homeland into a narco-military state to pump drugs into yours. That’s how this empire connects us.
