Reading 'The Vagrants' was like walking through a storm—you know it’s going to leave you drenched in emotions by the end. The novel’s conclusion is brutal yet poignant. Gu Shan, the executed dissident, becomes a symbol of resistance, but her parents’ lives unravel completely. Her mother, Niannian, descends into madness, while her father, Teacher Gu, is broken by guilt and grief. Meanwhile, the young boy Tong, who idolized Gu Shan, meets a tragic fate during a protest, mirroring her martyrdom. The ending doesn’t offer catharsis; instead, it lingers on the cost of defiance in an oppressive system. It’s one of those stories where the silence after the last page speaks louder than
the words.
What stuck with me was how Yiyun Li doesn’t shy away from showing the ripple effects of one person’s courage. Even the secondary characters, like the radio announcer Bashi or the grieving Mrs. Wei, are left in shambles. The town’s collective numbness by the finale makes you question whether any change was worth the suffering—or if that’s precisely the point. I closed the book feeling haunted, as if I’d witnessed something I wasn’t supposed to see.