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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dread Nation, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Legacy of Slavery
Racism and Trauma
Religion and Power
Friendship, Community, and Liberation
Systemic Oppression and Change
Summary
Analysis
In a letter to Momma, Jane writes that she’s made more friends than she can believe at Miss Preston’s school.
This passage suggests that Jane sometimes lies in her letters; here, she tells Momma that she has made several friends, in an apparent effort to put Momma at ease.
Themes
Miss Duncan, Jane, and Katherine arrive in Baltimore, which is enclosed by large stone walls. When they arrive, Jane sees Jackson, who often helps her smuggle contraband like newspaper articles into the school. The two briefly talk. Miss Duncan then walks ahead, while Jane and Katherine walk behind. Jane walks slowly to keep pace with Katherine, whose breathing is constrained because she is wearing a corset, which the school forbids. Jane says that wearing the corset is liable to get Jane killed if they run into any shamblers. Katherine responds that the corset is the “height of fashion.”
This passage points to the differences between Jane and Katherine as characters. While Jane is first and foremost concerned with the threat that the shamblers pose, Jane is more concerned with fashion. That suggests that while Jane is an expert in combat, Katherine is more concerned with satisfying traditional gender norms, and the corset in particular serves as a symbol of how restrictive those gender norms are, to the point that they literally constrain Katherine’s breathing.
Themes
Jane tells Katherine that she’ll be put on kitchen duty for a month if anyone finds out about the corset. Katherine says that Jane will also be in trouble if anyone finds out she is “courting” Jackson—the school also forbids dating. Jane implicitly threatens to tell the teachers about Katherine’s corset. In response, Jane and Katherine tacitly agree not to tell anyone about the ways they are both breaking the school’s rules.
This passage underlines the fact that, at this point in the novel, Jane and Katherine are nemeses. Instead of working in support of one another, they both are willing to sabotage one another, and Jane seems to resort to blackmail to keep Katherine from telling the school about her relationship with Jackson.
Themes
