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Act 2, Scene 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Rainbow’s End, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Systemic Racism and Control
Family and Community
Gender
Fantasy, Imagination, and Dreams
Summary
Analysis
Gladys brings Dolly a letter from the bank, but Dolly is uninterested in the job as teller. She tells her mother that this job is Gladys’s dream, not Dolly’s, and angrily suggests Gladys “fix [her] own house.” Gladys storms out.
Though the family has left the humpy, the image of rebuilding a house returns as Dolly uses a person’s house as a symbol for their life. This metaphor emphasizes the importance Dolly and her family place on home. It also signifies how the sterile Rumbalara housing is causing fractures within the home, which was previously a space where the family is united.
Active
Themes
Nan Dear pays the rent to the rent collector Mr. Coody and helps Dolly prepare a meal. They listen to the radio and are surprised to hear Gladys arguing with city councilors about building Aboriginal housing at Daish’s. Gladys is removed from the council meeting, but Dolly and Nan Dear are still proud of her.
