“They say we’re meant to go from here to there, but so much happens between those two places […] And there’s always more, isn’t there?”

Hiền speaks these lines at the beginning of The Magic Fish. They illustrate how Hiền feels in between worlds, stuck between her home country in Vietnam and her life in the United States. Nguyen complements her narrative by introducing three different panels with three different thematic colors: yellow, blue, and red.

“To me, language is a map to help you figure out where you are. If you can’t read the map, you’re lost.”

Hiền feels lost. She feels disconnected from both her home and from Tiền: she speaks more Vietnamese while he speaks more English. She’s working to improve her English by reading fairytales with Tiền in hopes of making their relationship stronger.

“Your bà ngoại used to tell me all kinds of old ghost stories and fairytales when I was a little girl. She and her sister.” 

Fairytales are a recurring motif throughout the book. They provide a way of communicating for Hiền and Tiền—as seen when Hiền changes the ending to the last fairytale–and a way of navigating their lives, such as when Hiền’s aunt recounts the story of the magic fish.