Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The City We Became, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cities and Gentrification
Community, Diversity, and Prejudice
Ethics and Nature
Beliefs, Concepts, and Stereotypes
Art
Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Aislyn Houlihan is waiting for the ferry from Staten Island. She’s shaking, terrified—even though she senses the people around her are “her people,” a sense she rejects when she sees Asian people or hears someone speaking a foreign language her new powers inform her is Quechua. When the ferry arrives, Aislyn is overcome with a sense of wrongness: normally, Staten Islanders take the ferry away in the morning and return after work, but this is the afternoon. Aislyn, reaching the ramp, wonders whether leaving the Island will make her “different” or “wrong.”
Aislyn’s reactions to the other people waiting for the Staten Island ferry suggest a mismatch between the facts of her community and her beliefs about it. Her community is in fact racially and linguistically diverse, yet she refuses to believe that a group to which she belongs could include people different from her. This refusal illustrates Aislyn’s narrowmindedness and fear of difference—a fear underlined when she equates becoming “different” with becoming “wrong.”
Themes
Boarding the ferry, a Black person accidentally touches Aislyn’s breast. Aislyn starts screaming. A white person grabs her; she scratches that person and flees the ferry. As Aislyn runs, a police officer yells at her. Though her father (Matthew Houlihan) has told her “only criminals run,” she keeps going, terrified that, having scratched someone, she’ll be hauled off to Rikers and never allowed to return to Staten Island.
Aislyn’s hysterical terror when a Black person accidentally touches her breast implies that she believes racist anti-Black stereotypes about all Black men being sexual predators. Her father’s claim that “only criminals run”—so different from the instinctive fear that New York City’s avatar and Manny feel toward the police—hints that Aislyn comes from a very different sociopolitical background than the other avatars the novel has introduced so far.
Themes
A voice tells Aislyn that no one can make a city do something it doesn’t want to. Aislyn stops—outside the terminal now—and sees a woman in a white outfit (the Woman in White) beside her. The Woman soothes Aislyn, telling her she made the right decision to stay because no “illegal immigrants” will touch her on Staten Island and also “Manhattan is very pretty, but he’s full of bees.” Aislyn laughs at the Woman’s peculiarity and notices the Woman is “petting” her shoulder.
Whereas the Woman in White approached Manny with hostility, she approaches Aislyn by pretending to comfort her and by endorsing her prejudice against “immigrants” and other people different from herself. Despite the Woman’s overtly peculiar speech—“Manhattan is very pretty, but he’s full of bees”—Aislyn does seem to find the Woman comforting. The Woman’s approach and Aislyn’s response foreshadow that Aislyn, due to her prejudices, may be more susceptible to the Woman’s manipulations than the other embodied boroughs.
Themes
Aislyn gets a call from her father Matthew. When he asks where she is, she tells him she’s shopping and changes the subject to his work. He says he’s tired of “immigrants,” which Aislyn knows is a euphemism—he’s said in the past that police officers get in trouble when they “don’t know how to keep home words at home and work words at work.” He tells her about arresting and calling ICE on a Puerto Rican man he assumed was dealing drugs. When the man protested about profiling, Matthew arrested him for assault.
Aislyn hides from her father that she was trying to go to Manhattan, which suggests that he would disapprove and that Aislyn is too conflict-averse or too afraid of her father to tell him the truth. Due to Matthew’s obvious bigotry—the phrase “home words,” in this passage, is clearly a euphemism for racial and other slurs—the reader may suspect that Aislyn learned her own prejudice from her family. Matthew’s story about racially profiling a Puerto Rican man again illustrates that police in the novel do not protect and serve other New Yorkers but rather abuse them.
Themes
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Aislyn—who often asks Matthew questions and then ignores him “to make space for her own thoughts”—asks whether he’s okay. He reassures her that the man didn’t assault him—Matthew just wanted a pretext to arrest him. The man claimed he was listening to music in his car, and Matthew didn’t believe him.
That Aislyn has to trick Matthew “to make space for her own thoughts” shows that he is a suffocating presence in her life but that she is unwilling to confront him directly. His casual admission that he lied about the man he arrested assaulting him reveals that he is corrupt as well as bigoted.
Themes
As Matthew monologues, Aislyn notices the Woman in White petting her shoulder. Aislyn realizes she’s barely reacting to the Woman’s touch, in contrast to her accidental contact with the Black man on the ferry. Aislyn also notices that the Woman is touching some people as they walk by. Aislyn sees one person grow a white tendril where the Woman touched him. She realizes the Woman is behaving strangely by standing nearby while she talks on the phone but rationalizes that the Woman is worried about her.
Aislyn’s non-reaction to the Woman petting her and rationalization of the Woman’s strange behavior, in contrast to her hysteria when a Black person accidentally touched her breast, underlines that racism and perhaps gender stereotypes are conditioning Aislyn’s behavior: she sees the Woman as non-threatening due to her whiteness (and femaleness), whereas she saw the person who touched her in the ferry terminal as threatening due to his or her Blackness. (Notably, Aislyn doesn’t note the person’s gender earlier in the chapter but later assumes the person is male.) That the Woman can infect people with tendrils by touching them, meanwhile, hints that she may be petting Aislyn not to comfort her but in an attempt to infect her.
Themes
Matthew, still talking, mentions he heard something over police radio about a woman matching Aislyn’s description but says he finds it hard to believe she’d stab someone or board the ferry. Aislyn says she could get on the ferry if she wanted to. Matthew replies: “That city would eat you up, Apple.” He tells her she’s too good a person for the city and prompts her to recite a credo of his: “‘Everything that happens everywhere else happens here, too, but at least here people try to be decent.’” He urges her to stay home as long as she’s happy on Staten Island. Aislyn isn’t happy, but she lies to herself that she is, because she doesn’t want to face that her life is stunted. She thanks her father, and they end the call.
This passage implies that Matthew uses police resources to keep tabs on his adult daughter—another detail that associates the police with abusive control. By referring to New York City as “that city,” Matthew reveals that he doesn’t really consider Staten Island to be a part of New York City, though technically it is. His claim that New York City would “eat [Aislyn] up,” meanwhile, may simply be an example of him using fear to control his daughter’s behavior—or it may foreshadow some threat that New York City poses to Aislyn. Finally, his credo that “at least [on Staten Island] people try to be decent” suggests that he views Staten Island as ethically superior to the rest of the city—though notably, his credo in no way defines what “decency” is.
Themes
Aislyn notices the Woman in White is still holding onto Aislyn’s shoulder and looking distressed. When Aislyn asks what’s wrong, the Woman says she’s “going to have to do this the hard way” but still believes she’s “right” about Aislyn. Aislyn asks what she’s talking about. The Woman says Aislyn should be susceptible to her, but Aislyn’s already too citylike to be infected—she even smells like a city. Aislyn, confused, sniffs herself. The Woman asks Aislyn whether she knows what she is. Aislyn, freaked out, starts thinking about how to escape the Woman.
This passage heavily implies that the Woman in White was indeed trying to infect Aislyn with a tendril—she thought Aislyn would be susceptible to her power, but as an embodied borough and part of New York City, Aislyn seems to have naturally repelled the infection. The Woman’s claim that she’ll “have to do this the hard way” is vague yet ominous—what, exactly, is she trying to do?—while her claim that she’s “right” about Aislyn suggests she’s identified Aislyn as the weak link among the embodied boroughs. Aislyn’s reaction to the Woman’s disturbing behavior is to flee rather than fight, which strengthens the reader’s earlier impression of her as timid and conflict averse.
Themes
Aislyn senses the Woman in White become more present and more frightening. Though scared, Aislyn feels a resurgence of something she sensed that morning while thinking dreamily about a romance novel in which the hero “isn’t Black but whose penis nearly is.” In her mind, she heard shouting and felt intense anger. Though Aislyn isn’t a fighter, she destroyed a pillow and decided to visit Manhattan—a trip she always fails to complete and hasn’t tried to take for a long time. Aislyn feels intense indignation that this Woman is trying to intimate Aislyn on “her island” and gets ready to threaten to call the police.
Aislyn’s enthusiasm for a romance hero who “isn’t Black but whose penis nearly is” contrasts with her abject fear when a Black person accidentally touched her breast. The contrast may mean that some part of her values, in addition to fearing, racial difference—or it may mean that her fetishization of Black men and her fear of Black men are two sides of the same bigoted coin. Interestingly, Aislyn heard voices shouting in her mind much in the same way Manny did at Penn Station—which suggests she is remembering the moment she came to embody Staten Island. This memory and Aislyn’s realization that she and the Woman are on “her island” make Aislyn want to stand up for herself—something the reader hasn’t yet seen her do—which suggests that Aislyn derives psychological strength from belonging to her borough’s community. Yet her first thought is to call the police, a consistently negative force so far in the novel, which suggests that Aislyn doesn’t know how to stand up for herself in a constructive way.
Themes
The Woman in White tells Aislyn that Aislyn is Staten Island—the “forgotten” and “despised” borough. She asks whether Aislyn heard the city’s summons that morning. Aislyn tries to deny it, but she knows the Woman is right. The Woman tells Aislyn she would pity Aislyn’s loneliness if Aislyn weren’t a menace to myriad universes. Then she sympathizes with Aislyn’s fear of the ferry, ventriloquizing Staten Island’s jealousy and hatred of Manhattan residents in highly bigoted terms—including a reference to “prissy chink bitches who barely speak English but gamble with your 401(k).” Aislyn, scared, blurts out that she doesn’t have a 401(k). Suddenly, the Woman and Aislyn burst into amicable laughter. The Woman admits she’ll “miss this universe” and its “small joys.”
A previous passage has suggested that the Woman in White identified Aislyn as the borough most susceptible to her influence because Aislyn is prejudiced. This passage hints, in addition, that Aislyn may be susceptible to the Woman’s influence because, as Staten Island, she is “forgotten” and “despised” by the other boroughs and resents them for it. The Woman’s comment that Aislyn is a menace, meanwhile, suggests that the Woman is attacking New York City because she feels threatened or wronged by it in some as-yet-unexplained way. The Woman succeeds in bonding with Aislyn by terrifying her with a xenophobic, racist, and economically resentful rant—which includes the anti-Asian racial slur “chink”—and then, unexpectedly, laughing with Aislyn over Aislyn’s accidental joke about 401(k)s. That Aislyn accepts this as a bonding moment shows her willingness both to accept other white people’s overt racism and to appease people who scare her. The Woman’s throwaway comment that she’ll “miss this universe” implies that she comes from another universe, that she intends to destroy this universe, and that she nevertheless feels some fondness for humanity.
Themes
The Woman asks Aislyn to accept her help—she claims to like Aislyn and want to “save” her from New York City’s avatar. Aislyn concludes the Woman is insane and foreign, perhaps a legal immigrant from Canada, but Aislyn likes her. They shake hands, and the Woman asks for Aislyn’s help in saving Staten Island from extermination. At Aislyn’s confusion, the Woman explains she destroyed the Williamsburg Bridge fighting the avatar, whom she didn’t expect to know how to fight with “concepts.” Aislyn worries the Woman is a terrorist, but because Aislyn associates terrorism with “bearded Arab men,” she reverts to her theory that the Woman is crazy. Aislyn decides to placate her and escape.
Like Aislyn’s father Matthew, the Woman in White tries to convince Aislyn that New York City is a danger—from which the Woman can “save” her. It’s clear that both Matthew and the Woman are trying to scare Aislyn to control her behavior while convincing her they’re just protecting her; it's still unclear whether their warnings also foreshadow a real threat that New York City poses to Aislyn. The Woman’s comment that she didn’t expect New York City’s avatar to use “concepts” against her reveals that, in the novel’s science-fictional universe, concepts are a higher form of technology or power than most humans know how to use. Immediately after, the scene illustrates the power of concepts to limit and control human thought: because Aislyn’s concept or stereotype of a terrorist involves “bearded Arab men,” she fails to believe that the Woman destroyed the Williamsburg Bridge—even though the Woman herself frankly admits it.
Themes
The Woman in White asks Aislyn to help her find New York City’s avatar so Aislyn will be “free” of him. She asks Aislyn to ponder why the others haven’t come to protect her—Manhattan and Brooklyn have teamed up, and they’re looking for the Bronx and Queens, but none of them have come to her. Realizing the Woman is talking about other embodied boroughs, Aislyn longs to meet them, realizes she missed finding them by missing the ferry, and wonders why they didn’t come to her. She recalls Matthew yelling at someone: “Who’s gonna help you? Nobody gives a shit. You don’t fucking matter.” Aislyn believes his words apply to her.
In this passage, the Woman in White is trying to convince Aislyn that Staten Island isn’t truly part of New York City—both because Staten Island should want to be “free” of New York and because the rest of New York doesn’t care about Staten Island. The passage also reveals that Aislyn, witnessing her father Matthew verbally abuse and terrorize others, has come to believe that no one cares about her or will help her—which will make it easier for the Woman in White to convince her that the other boroughs aren’t her allies. Interestingly, the passage doesn’t reveal at whom Matthew is yelling in Aislyn’s memory. It might be a police suspect—except it’s not clear when Aislyn would have seen her father interacting with a suspect. It might also be another family member, in which case Matthew is sometimes overtly as well as covertly abusive toward his family members.
Themes
The Woman in White reassures Aislyn that though the other boroughs won’t take care of her, the Woman will. She points to a tendril growing from the ferry station—Aislyn, comparing it to a “petal from an exotic flower,” finds it beautiful—and says it’s like a microphone Aislyn can use to summon her. Aislyn, thinking the Woman is crazy but liking her, asks her name. The Woman says Aislyn won’t enjoy her “foreign” name. Aislyn insists, so the Woman whispers a name—which makes Aislyn collapse.
In telling Aislyn that no one will care for Aislyn except her, the Woman is using the same abusive, controlling tactics as Matthew, who earlier tried to convince Aislyn she wouldn’t be happy or safe anywhere except on Staten Island with her family. Previously, the novel has noted that the tendrils are white; that Aislyn thinks they’re beautiful and compares them to flowers may suggest that Aislyn associates the concept of whiteness (racial or otherwise) with beauty, goodness, and innocence and so is less able to realize that the tendrils pose a threat to her. The Woman’s “foreign” name and its dramatic effect on Aislyn, meanwhile, remind the reader that despite appearing as a white woman to Aislyn and other humans, the Woman is in fact a radically alien outsider in New York City.
Themes
When Aislyn comes to, the Woman in White is gone, and a bus driver is asking Aislyn whether he should call 911. Aislyn’s arms are covered in hives, but she tells the driver she’s fine—it’s allergies. Riding home on the bus, Aislyn sees another tendril and realizes she can’t remember the Woman’s name, only that it began with R. She decides to call the Woman Rosie and imagines her on an “I WANT YOU” poster before remembering that that isn’t, in fact, Rosie the Riveter’s slogan, which she can’t remember either.
The Woman in White’s very name gives Aislyn hives, a detail dramatically underlining that the Woman does not belong—she’s like an infection or allergen to the living organism of New York City. The appearance of the tendril hints that the Woman in using the tendrils to keep tabs on Aislyn, somewhat like Matthew keeps tabs on her using police resources—a parallel that reinforces the associations the novel has made between Matthew’s controlling behavior toward Aislyn and the Woman’s manipulation of her. Aislyn has mismatched Uncle Sam’s U.S. military recruitment slogan, “I WANT YOU,” with Rosie the Riveter’s, which is actually “WE CAN DO IT.” That Aislyn imagines the Woman on a military recruitment poster hints that the Woman is recruiting Aislyn for some kind of war. That Aislyn can’t remember “WE CAN DO IT,” meanwhile, implies that Aislyn doesn’t remember or understand the concept of successful community action—a bad sign for her relationship with the other embodied boroughs.
Themes
