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
After settling Johanna in the hotel room, Captain Kidd locks the door, listening to her sing a Kiowa chant inside. He pauses downstairs to explain the noise to the concierge. When he mentions that Johanna was a Kiowa captive, the concierge is astonished that she’s not happy to be returning home. The concierge suggests that the Captain bring Mrs. Gannet to stay with Johanna and keep her from chanting all night.
Like the soldier Captain Kidd met before, this man can’t conceive of anyone valuing Native American over Anglo-American society. His blatant prejudice contrasts with Captain Kidd’s more nuanced sense of cultural understanding.
Themes
Captain Kidd returns to Mrs. Gannet’s stable, admiring her lush brown braids. She’s gently reprimanding her indigent stable boy but instantly agrees to help the Captain. It’s the first time in the last week that he feels truly confident in Johanna’s safety.
Before meeting Johanna, Captain Kidd feels disengaged from those around him. Now, reinvigorated by responsibility, he begins to consider the prospect of romantic attachment again.
Themes
A few hours later, Mrs. Gannet arrives at the hotel with her nightgown and some divinity, a complicated candy which she must have spent hours making for Johanna. The girl is initially suspicious but after Mrs. Gannet nibbles the delicacy, Johanna is soon enjoying it too. Captain Kidd retreats to the other room to choose his articles. He hears Johanna sobbing and calling for him when she realizes she must sleep in this strange building.
Besides Captain Kidd, Mrs. Gannet is the only character who approaches Johanna on her own terms, rather than simply expressing dismay about her inability to conform to Anglo-American society. Still, Johanna’s visceral reaction to simply sleeping inside hints what challenges lie ahead of her.
Themes
After knocking on the wall to assure Johanna he’s close by, Captain Kidd begins a letter to his daughters, Olympia and Elizabeth, assuring them that he’s healthy and making a good living. Olympia, whose husband, Mason, was killed in the Civil War, is now living with Elizabeth and her husband, Emory, who lost an arm in battle. Olympia has always been a helpless and dramatic woman, and the Captain is sure she’s not making her sister’s life easier.
Olympia emerges as an implicit foil to Johanna here. While Johanna is characterized by unusual capabilities, Olympia is manifestly unable to fend for herself. Still, it’s uncharacteristically insensitive of Captain Kidd to fault his daughter for conforming to social expectations of women in her era.
Themes
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Captain Kidd hears Mrs. Gannet speaking to Johanna in a low, soothing voice. He continues the letter, remarking that although they have suffered losses they are still lucky compared to other families in the South. He starts to write to them about the Comanche and Kiowa raids currently affecting Texas, but then decides against it; after all, his dearest wish is for his daughters and their children to join him in Texas. It will be a difficult journey, since most Southern infrastructure was destroyed in the war, there is little money to rebuild, and resources are scarce.
Captain Kidd feels the need to hide the danger of his life and the reality of life in Texas from his daughters. In contrast, he knows that Johanna relishes these hardships and doesn’t mind sharing them with him. In this sense, her background allows their relationship to transcend gendered behavioral expectations which limit his interaction with his biological daughters.
Themes
Striving for a light tone, Captain Kidd assures his daughters that although the Union has forbidden civilians to carry firearms, he still has a gun to shoot birds for supper. He urges them to return to Texas, where they can try to reclaim the land which his deceased wife, Maria Luisa, owned through her family. He instructs Elizabeth, who enjoys thorny problems, to write to the priest and archivist in San Antonio and begin finding all the relevant records to prove their title.
It’s interesting that even though Captain Kidd has fought in the Mexican-American War, the ascendance of America over Spanish Mexicans has caused him to lose claim to his wife’s land. Captain Kidd has been on both sides of many cultural divides in his country.
Themes
Captain Kidd hears Johanna sobbing. Since crying is rare in Native American culture, he knows she must be in severe distress, and the thought “[tears] his heart.” He closes his eyes, reflecting that because the war has eliminated a generation of young men, the elderly like him must “arrange for his family to be together again, […] enter into litigation, [and] make a living with readings.”
Captain Kidd interprets Johanna’s behavior not in light of his own society’s standards (by which children are expected to cry) but by those of the Kiowa (among whom crying is a sign of deep distress). This allows him to truly appreciate and allay Johanna’s emotions.
Themes
Captain Kidd hears loud objections as Mrs. Gannet coaxes Johanna to the hallway bathroom. When they return, she sings to the girl in her light, firm voice, and Johanna gradually quiets down. Captain Kidd wonders why he has never “offered his attentions” to the kindly woman, but he knows his daughters, who want him to be loyal to their dead mother, would have “a galvanized tin hissy” if he did anything of the sort.
Captain Kidd is implicitly blaming his daughters for his inability to find love after Maria Luisa’s death. But given how far removed they are from his daily life, it seems like he’s project his own feelings of loss and isolation onto others, rather than grappling with them himself.
Themes
