Previous
Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Maintenance vs. Loss
Grief and Trauma
Colonialism and Land Use
Stories and Religion
Humor
Summary
Analysis
Many years after her time in residential school, Lillian Benojee begins to die of illness and old age, surrounded by her many children and grandchildren. One of these grandchildren is Virgil, an unremarkable 13-year-old. He’s the son of Maggie Second, the chief of the Anishnawbe community of Otter Lake, who took over the position after her husband died. Though most of the extended family is staying by Lillian on her deathbed, Maggie is away, as usual, on official tribal business.
Though the novel emphasizes the lasting effects of colonization on First Nations people, Lillian’s large and loving family highlights the failure of colonial efforts to completely wipe out Indigenous people. This family isn’t perfect, however, and Maggie’s absence from Lillian’s house introduces the trouble Maggie has balancing her conflicting duties as chief and mother.
Themes
Elsewhere, Canadians on various roads witness a man speeding by on a motorcycle, until he finally stops in Otter Lake. Not all of these Canadians are human––the driver pauses and speaks to a crow in its own language, and the racoons that dwell in the woods around Otter Lake recognize the man. The racoons respond to his return with a yearning for revenge. A group of middle-aged Anishnawbe residents of Otter Lake see the man driving through and, even though they don’t recognize him, they find him somehow familiar.
The story presents the mysterious man with both humor and respect, suggesting that these traits can coexist rather than contradict each other. He is the childish man who sulked when his follower left him for a new boyfriend, and he is also an ancient being with a deep connection to the land of Canada and the people and animals native to it. That he returns to his former glory on a motorcycle also indicates another duality in his character, between the ancient and the modern.
Themes
