The Garden
The narrator’s garden symbolizes the family’s collective power and survival on the land in the face of external threats. The garden appears first in the story when the narrator remembers how, in the “hard…
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Formal Words
Formal words, which stand out amid the story’s conversational tone, represent the narrator's lack of power in New Zealand’s racist society. In the beginning, the narrator makes a point of using more formal words in…
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Displaced Bones
Both the literal and metaphorical unearthing of human remains symbolize how New Zealand’s colonial past haunts its present. On the train, the narrator mentions his belief that construction projects often unearth human bones, “because that’s…
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