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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The White Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonial Violence
Dignity and Resilience
Loss
Love and Family
Power
Summary
Analysis
When she passes the junkyard the following Sunday, Odette notices that Henry has locked the gate and put up a new “Keep Out” sign. She talks with him on her return trip, learning that Aaron and George Kane tried to break in a few nights earlier. Apparently, they brought guns. Rowdy, Henry’s beloved dog, eventually ran them off. Odette is alarmed, but Henry assures her that he has a plan for defending himself. Would he shoot them? Odette inquires offhandedly. Henry replies that that is a good idea.
The care and concern for each other’s wellbeing that Henry and Odette share shows how love can—and should—transcend racial divisions. They know and care for each other as fellow human beings. Readers should note that Aaron appears undeterred by every sign of resistance Henry has made and in fact seems to be escalating his behavior in a dangerous way. It’s only a matter of time, Odette worries, until someone gets seriously hurt.
Themes
The following Tuesday after school, Odette tears Sissy away from her library book and brings her to the junkyard. On the way, Sissy tells Odette her wildest birthday wish: to spend a year soaking in the bathtub with a White person to wash her hair, Odette to keep her company, and chocolate to eat.
Sissy’s simple idea of luxury suggests how little she and her grandmother have in terms of worldly goods, but it also exudes a childlike innocence. If everyone wanted so little for themselves, the world would be a better place. She does fantasize about having a White servant, a fact that suggests how deep of an impression her own marginalization has had on her.
Themes
When Henry finally lets Odette and Sissy through the gate, Odette looks around in surprise. She’s never been inside the junkyard before. She sees some objects that she recognizes, however, like the stagecoach that used to bring White supervisors to the quarry—and that the mission used when it separated Aboriginal children from their families. Odette asks how Henry makes a living. He says a dealer from Gatlin comes by every few weeks and buys enough to keep Henry afloat, with a little left to fund his pet project: building a rocket ship like the one the Russians recently launched.
The stagecoach offers Odette an unpleasant reminder of the way Aboriginal people were neglected and forthrightly abused by White culture. It is literally the vehicle for forced cultural assimilation by means of family separation. By placing the stagecoach in the junkyard, the book not-so-subtly suggests that the attitudes and actions of those who marginalize Aboriginal (or other Indigenous) populations belong on the trash heap of history. Henry’s invocation of the space race helps to situate the events in the book in the early- or mid-1960s.
Themes
Henry reveals the rehabilitated bicycle. Its tires don’t match but they’re freshly oiled and its frame is painted bright red. Sissy loves it. As she takes it for a wobbly test drive, Odette revisits the subject of Aaron and George Kane. She wants to know what Henry will do—really—if they come back. He says he trusts Rowdy to protect him, but he will take matters into his own hands if necessary. He has gunpowder and detonators he salvaged from the quarry. Odette warns him against violence, but he’s determined to protect the junkyard that is also his home.
The bicycle reflects the care and concern Henry and Odette have for each other. Marginalized by the rest of society, neither ever fails to honor the humanity of the other. And neither is willing to let society dictate their worth. Henry will fight to defend himself if necessary. The bicycle is a work of art because it’s cobbled together from various spare parts. It might look odd, but it works. And it gives Sissy freedom and mobility in a world that wants to constrain and control her every move.
Themes
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