Exile and Displacement

The White Russian characters live as refugees in Manchuria, stripped of their homeland and social standing, mirroring the exiled Jews in the Book of Tobit, which the author explicitly parallels.

The author explicitly compares the exiled Jews of Tobit's day to White Russian refugees, emphasizing rootlessness, loss of political standing, and the struggle to survive in a foreign land.

Seryozha's journey to Seoul and Anna's abandonment highlight the physical and emotional displacement experienced by the characters.

The Russian characters are far from home, burying fellow exiles in a foreign land; Old Sergei imagines the dead men's children 'picking flowers in the darling forests of Russia.'

The family's precarious existence in a foreign land, marked by poverty, reliance on missionary charity, and the son's dangerous journey to Seoul, underscores their displacement and loss of homeland.