Yellow appears in multiple forms throughout the novel. In the first chapter, Sam describes his love Sam’s eyes as “yellow-flared.” When Hikari approaches the hospital, Sam sees a glimpse of yellow and wonders, “[d]id the sun descend to Earth and decide to spend a day among its subjects” (17). Sam suggests that people cannot see the light that they project, only its reflection. The narrator’s lover Sam and Hikari are mirrors for the narrator’s yellow, his warmth. The narrator Sam embodies people’s hopes and dreams. Where the color yellow appears, so does hope.

Sam’s function in the novel is multi-faceted. He is the narrator, a personification of the hospital, and most importantly, a symbol. He is, in his own words, “the soul of an unfulfilled wish. I am what arises to keep people afloat when it seems so comfortable to sink” (397). Sam represents the hope and resilience of humanity. He takes physical form in the hospital because he wants to understand why people keep fighting when they continue to lose others. By becoming real and learning to love others whom he will lose, Sam brings hope to all he encounters in the hospital, whether he means to or not.