The City We Became

by

N. K. Jemisin

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Themes and Colors
Cities and Gentrification Theme Icon
Community, Diversity, and Prejudice Theme Icon
Ethics and Nature Theme Icon
Beliefs, Concepts, and Stereotypes Theme Icon
Art Theme Icon
Abuse Theme Icon
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

The City We Became, a science-fiction novel, uses an extradimensional alien invasion of New York City to show how gentrification makes cities depressingly homogenous and destroys the idiosyncratic lifestyles they can offer residents. In the novel, great cities that “develop a unique enough culture” eventually come to life and choose a human avatar from among their residents to embody them. New York City is in the process of being born when extradimensional aliens, bent on…

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Community, Diversity, and Prejudice

The City We Became suggests that communities gain strength from diversity—so long as they do not ask, due to prejudice, for community members to give up their diverse individual identities. In the novel, cities with idiosyncratic histories and cultures eventually come to life and select a human avatar to embody them. Sometimes, if a city has distinctive neighborhoods or other sub-areas, those sub-areas will also select “sub-avatars” to embody them during the city’s birthing process…

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Ethics and Nature

In The City We Became, the antagonist, the Woman in White, uses utilitarianism—the ethical philosophy that one should seek the greatest good for the greatest number—to justify evil deeds. Meanwhile, the protagonists sometimes justify their ethically dubious preferences by appealing to nature and the natural instinct to survive—but, at other times, they argue that their ethical obligations to save others’ lives should override survival instincts. The Women in White’s dubious self-justifications and the…

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Beliefs, Concepts, and Stereotypes

The City We Became suggests that people’s beliefs and concepts determine how they perceive reality—by making beliefs and concepts literally capable of transforming material reality in its science-fictional universe. Beliefs and concepts, including stereotypes, can be positive, neutral, or destructive, which means that what one believes really matters. In the novel, all life exists in a “multiverse” of parallel dimensions. Choices, beliefs, ideas, stories, and so on can cause new dimensions to split off…

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Art

The City We Became implicitly argues that to be great, a city must foster good art. In the science-fictional world of the novel, great cities—that is, cities with sufficiently distinctive histories and cultures—come alive and choose one of their human residents as their avatar. Internally diverse New York City actually chooses six avatars: a primary avatar representing the whole city, and five avatars representing each of its boroughs (the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten…

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Abuse

The City We Became suggests that abuse can make victims stronger—if they direct the anger at the abuse they’ve suffered toward the right people: their abusers. One major character, Bronca, suffered abusive sexual harassment from adult men in her neighborhood when she was 11. One man, rumored to be a former police officer fired for his conduct toward an “underaged witness,” ambushed her while she was wearing steel-toed boots—at which point she kicked his…

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