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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

The I Ching

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese divination system by which a person casts a series of elements and then interprets how they land against an ancient manual. Several of the characters use the I Ching to make decisions and predict future outcomes. They have faith in the system and give over a degree of their free will to the device. Abendsen consults the I Ching to write his book The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, and Juliana consults it to discover why Abendsen’s book was written: “Inner Truth.” The outcomes the I Ching predicts always come true, showing its mystical power. This also shows that Abendsen’s novel records a history that contains a deeper truth than the more superficial ones recorded by history or perspective. Here, the I Ching is connected to a current of truth running through the universe that supersedes other truths, which are false perhaps because they originate in the human mind. 

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy

Each character seems to get their hands on Abendsen’s novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy at some point. It’s a topic of conversation at the Kasouras’ home when Childan visits for dinner; it’s spotted by Wyndam-Matson’s girlfriend on her way out of his house; Reiss and Juliana read it voraciously. Since Abendsen’s novel is revealed at the end to contain an Inner Truth, as well as literal truth, since it records readers’ history as it ostensibly is, with the Allies winning WWII, the novel within the novel becomes a barometer by which each character’s relationship to truth can be judged. The Kasouras see the book as fiction, which reveals them to be accurate recorders of current tastes. Reiss wants to kill the author, and Juliana is so captivated by its contents she travels to Abendsen’s home. These events show how each character approaches truth as it exists in the world. They’re either casually interested in it, reactive, or driven to seek it out. 

“Place” 

Childan uses the term “place” often, signaling his obsessive preoccupation with social class and station. When Tagomi gets Childan’s name wrong, Childan cringes, his own lower social position made apparent by Tagomi’s error. When Childan visits the Nippon Times Building where Tagomi’s office is, he frets about whether he should carry his own bags. If the people funneling in and out of the building tending to its occupants saw him carrying his bags, he might never have place with them again. Finally, when the Admiral comes to Childan’s shop and tells him his pistols are forgeries, Childan considers killing himself for having lost place. “Place” becomes an important term that symbolizes the preoccupation of social class structure in the human mind, and the lack of place conquers people’s feelings as soon as their power is displaced.

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