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Summary
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
In 1950s Australia, Nan Dear and Gladys rebuild their humpy (another word for a bush hut) after a flood. Gladys is Nan Dear’s middle-aged daughter and the mother of Dolly, a teenager. The women are Aboriginal Australians. Nan Dear and Gladys tear up Dolly’s magazines to repair the walls. Dolly returns home from school and almost protests when she sees her ruined magazines, but ultimately she says nothing, resigned. Nan Dear and Gladys hug Dolly.
The play introduces readers and viewers to its main characters as they rebuild their home. This establishes the home as something that must be tended to and maintained, and it also highlights the often invisible domestic labor that goes into maintaining a home. That labor requires sacrifices, like Dolly’s magazines, but the women are willing to put their personal wants aside for the sake of the family and their home.
Active
Themes
