The United States is presented as a country whose celebrated ideals are tested against the inequalities Margaret Campbell sees in its political and social life. It is also part of her personal history: her mother’s hopes for her future, David Webber’s family wealth, and Margaret’s scholarship-bound education all shape her refusal to accept the country’s prestige as proof of fairness.

Political Ideal and Political Critique

In conversation with David, the United States becomes a point of argument about what makes a society a standard for others. David insists that it sets that standard and that people there have rights, contrasting it with the prospect of disorder and civil conflict he associates with Russia. Margaret counters that American rights are compromised by the gun lobby’s influence and by a justice system in which effective legal representation depends on what a person can afford. Their exchange turns national pride into a disagreement over who can actually exercise the freedoms the country claims to offer.

David’s bewilderment at Margaret’s criticism underscores the distance between his confidence in the national ideal and her skepticism. The scene does not resolve their political argument; instead, it reveals a difference in how they understand power and fairness. For Margaret, the language of rights cannot be separated from the institutions and resources that determine whose rights are protected.

Class, Education, and Personal History

The United States is also the setting of a class contrast in Margaret’s account of her past. David attended the University of Chicago because his parents could afford it; Margaret attended on a scholarship. The same university therefore marks two different routes through education: inherited financial security for David and earned access for Margaret. This difference helps explain why she rejects her mother’s attempt to match her with him, especially when she believes the attraction is to his family’s money rather than to him.

When Margaret tells David that she is in love with Li Yan, her declaration closes off the future he hopes to revive. Her refusal is both romantic and independent: she will not become an instrument of her mother’s matchmaking, and she will not treat wealth or family status as a substitute for love. The United States, in this exchange, is not simply a backdrop but part of the history that has taught Margaret to distinguish privilege from personal worth.

Departure and Transnational Contrast

Margaret’s decision to return to China gives the United States a further role as a place she is leaving. After learning that she is wanted to perform autopsies on bodies found in Shanghai, she tells her mother that she has now made up her mind. Her return redirects her life toward the investigation and work awaiting her abroad, despite her mother’s longstanding lack of understanding.

The novel’s opening offers a contrasting image of American presence in China: an unnamed American travels in a limousine through rain in Shanghai, arriving to celebrate a union spanning continents. His wealth cannot protect him from the horrors approaching, and the city’s towers appear to him as monuments to money, the power he shares with those who built them. Read alongside Margaret’s arguments and departure, this episode links the United States to transnational privilege while distinguishing that powerful visitor from Margaret, whose return is prompted by professional duty and personal choice.