Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in News of the World, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fatherhood and Masculinity
American Multiculturalism and Racial Violence
News and Storytelling
Childhood and Innocence
War and Reconstruction
Summary
Analysis
Captain Kidd pulls into the loading yard of a big broom mill on the edge of town. The mill owner is sitting nearby, binding brooms. Explaining that he can’t afford a hotel and doesn’t want Johanna to sleep in a wagon yard, the Captain asks to spend the night. The owner charges fifty cents, an exorbitant price.
While the Captain often encounters acquaintances and even strangers who are willing to help him, this man’s behavior shows the more mercenary and opportunistic side of frontier culture.
Themes
At the pump, Captain Kidd washes his cut as thoroughly as possible. He gives Johanna his watch, trying to show her the time when he will be back, and sets off into the town, where he rents a hall to read and puts up his posters. A well-dressed man asks him about the politics in Dallas, but the Captain refuses to comment, merely saying that local news is “pure propaganda” and he only reads papers from the East. He says that his reading will cover events so far away that “they have a fairy-tale quality about them.” Offended, the man huffs that he considers the local newspaper “a valuable contribution to the current debates.” The Captain walks away.
Captain Kidd’s speech here is a little convoluted. He accuses the local press of being unrealistic and useless to the townspeople, but then states that he will read about events that do not resemble reality and have no effect on Texans. This moment reflects both the Captain’s disillusionment with the media and his doubts about the moral worth of his own profession.
Themes
Back at the wagon, the mill owner watches suspiciously as Johanna cleans the wagon and harnesses. As Captain Kidd sets out his newspapers, the mill owner complains that there’s “something wrong” with the girl. The Captain looks for “soothing,” uncontroversial articles to read. For Johanna’s sake, he needs to get out of Durand safely and carrying a good deal more money. As he underlines an article about ice-skating in Philadelphia, the owner asks defiantly why Johanna looks white but doesn’t speak English. The Captain tells him to “shut the hell up.”
The mill owner’s blunt comments reflect the view of many adults who encounter Johanna: that because she doesn’t act like most children he knows, there is something fundamentally “wrong” with her. It’s important that he marshals as evidence her inability to speak English: he’s explicitly liking his conception of “normal” behavior to whiteness and Anglo-American culture.
Themes
After a few minutes of reading the paper in peace, Captain Kidd hears Johanna shrieking from the river. Running to the water, he sees Johanna bathing in her underclothes while a young woman with a bucket chases her. Johanna screams curses while the woman cries that in frustration that “we cannot have naked bathing here.” The Captain tries to calm the young woman, covering Johanna with a blanket and explaining that she doesn’t know any better. Undeterred, the woman accuses Johanna of “parading her charms […] like a Dallas huzzy.”
At 10 years old, Johanna is obviously a child; but by calling her a “Dallas huzzy,” or prostitute, the woman attributes to her the sexuality and personal responsibility of an adult. Because she does not conform to Anglo-American norms, Johanna is excluded from the social protections afforded to other children. Instead, she is presumed to be both sexually available and liable to adult punishment.
Themes
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Captain Kidd pulls Johanna out of the water. She clutches him and sobs. Sharply, he tells the young woman that Johanna has seen her own mother brained to death and endured sufferings “beyond description.” The woman responds that the importance of bathing modestly must be “forcefully impressed upon her.”
Here, Captain Kidd exhorts the young woman to feel the empathy that comes so naturally to him. That she is incapable of doing so (at least initially) highlights the exceptional nature of the Captain’s own character.
Themes
Meanwhile, Johanna thinks of her Kiowa mother, with whom she had bathed naked alongside the other girls of the tribe, while the young men drummed on the mountainside. She feels “all her terrible losses” acutely and continues to weep. Looking chastened, young woman leans down and tells Johanna and says she’s sorry for her sufferings. Sternly, the Captain responds that if she wants to call herself a Christian, she should find Johanna some new shoes and clothing.
By momentarily stepping into Johanna’s mind, the novel allows the reader to witness the suffering that Captain Kidd can only imagine. Her flashback also highlights the artificial nature of all social norms: while naked bathing is a sign of depravity to the young woman, for Johanna it represents innocent fun and familial bonding.
Themes
By eight o’clock Johanna is calm and settled in the back of the wagon. As Captain Kidd heads out for his reading, she reminds him that they have no bacon left, and he promises to bring some home, telling her that the next day they will even have eggs. He looks at her with concern, reflecting on how easily the moods of children shift. He would like to kiss her on the cheek, but he doesn’t know if this is acceptable among the Kiowa; after all, “cultures were mine fields.” Instead, he pats her gently.
Rather than focusing on the way Johanna’s tendency to flout norms sets her apart from other children, Captain Kidd focuses on her changeable moods as one of the universal hallmarks of children across cultures. It’s also notable that, rather than assuming Johanna can or should adopt his own cultural norms, he explicitly takes responsibility for understanding and acknowledging hers.
Themes
