Here's a breakdown:
* First-person, limited perspective: The story is told from the perspective of Jian, a young woman struggling with mental illness and navigating complicated relationships. This limited perspective restricts our access to the full truth about other characters' motivations and internal lives, forcing us to rely on Jian's often unreliable narration. This forces the reader to actively interpret her experiences and biases, making us question the reliability of our understanding and mirroring the difficulties in truly understanding others. We empathize with Jian's struggles, but simultaneously grapple with the subjectivity of her reality, highlighting the theme of the limitations of empathy.
* Nonlinear chronology: The fragmented timeline, jumping between different periods in Jian's life, prevents a straightforward narrative arc. Instead of a linear progression revealing insights, the story unfolds through flashbacks and shifts in time. This disjointedness reflects Jian's own fractured mental state and creates a sense of uncertainty and disorientation in the reader, similar to the experience of Jian herself. The lack of a clear cause-and-effect sequence for events highlights the unpredictable nature of mental illness and the messy, non-linear way trauma and its effects manifest.
* Strategic withholding of information: Li strategically withholds information, revealing crucial details gradually or only through implication. This slow drip-feed of information forces the reader to actively participate in piecing together the story and making inferences about characters and their motivations. This makes the reader question their initial interpretations and contributes to the ambiguous nature of the novel's ending. The gradual unveiling of events makes the reader grapple with uncertainties, mirroring the emotional and mental uncertainty experienced by Jian and her characters.
* Thematic development through juxtaposition: The ordering of events, often juxtaposing moments of connection with moments of alienation or seemingly unrelated incidents, underlines the complexity of the themes. For example, a scene of apparent warmth might be followed by a starkly different event showing the fragility of those connections, highlighting the transient nature of empathy and the persistent isolation Jian feels. This subtle juxtaposition highlights the paradoxical nature of human relationships and the difficulty of achieving true understanding.
In conclusion, the author's deliberate choices regarding narration and the structuring of the narrative in *Sympathy* are not merely stylistic choices; they are essential to the novel's exploration of its central themes. The nonlinear structure and the limited perspective create a reading experience that mirrors the complexity of Jian's inner world and the challenges in truly comprehending both oneself and others. The reader's struggle to make sense of the narrative parallels the characters' struggles in forging genuine connections, effectively deepening the emotional and intellectual impact of the novel.