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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
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
After leaving Henry’s, Odette and Sissy head into town to visit the post office. As they cross the footbridge, Sissy mourns the fact that she’ll never get to swim in the river like Odette did during her childhood, before White farmers stole its once-abundant waters to irrigate their fields. But the greed and short-sightedness of the White settlers apparently knows no bounds.
The river attests to the determination of White settlers to reshape the land to fit their needs rather than respecting it for what it had to offer. As a result, abundance has been lost and want is common. If, in contrast, the land’s Aboriginal inhabitants had been allowed to teach White settlers, everything and everyone—the White settlers, the Aboriginal inhabitants, the land itself—would be better off.
Active
Themes
In town, Odette and Sissy run into one of Odette’s oldest friends, Millie Kahn. Millie’s father used to tame “brumbies,” wild ponies descended from the escaped livestock of White settlers. He went into business with a local White politician and stockyard owner, an association that shielded him and his children from the scrutiny of Welfare officers. Millie still lives in the house where she grew up, even though it’s slowly sinking into the poorly backfilled billabong on which it was built. She married an Afghani immigrant whose family used to work the caravan lines carrying goods across Australia’s interior desert. His name is Yusuf.
Millie’s story is different than Odette’s. While virtually all Aboriginal people suffered oppression due to their inferior social and legal position, that played out differently for everyone. In that context, however, note how it was Millie’s father’s proximity to a powerful White person that conferred benefits on his family. The implication is that he did what was necessary to survive and protect his own, and that there is dignity in that, no matter what it costs.
Active
Themes
Calling Sissy “Blondie,” a nickname Odette hates, Millie asks about the bicycle. Odette says it was Sissy’s 13th birthday present. Millie says she wishes she’d had a bike that nice when she was 13. It would have made it easier to outrun the “Welfare fellas.” This piques Sissy’s curiosity, but Odette shoos her away before she can ask too many questions.
Active
Themes
Privately, Millie suggests that Odette, whom Millie thinks looks ill, visit the town’s new physician. Talk of newcomers quickly turns to Sergeant Lowe. Although neither woman liked Bill Shea, at least he mostly left the Aboriginal people alone. Odette and Bill were friends for a short time after the Shea family arrived, but their friendship ended abruptly one afternoon when Bill’s mother returned home to find them wrestling in the front yard. After that, Bill and his sister rejected the Aboriginal children.
Active
Themes
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Millie is particularly leery of Lowe because she’s heard gossip about the government sending aggressive officials out to quash Aboriginal dissent. There have been calls for civil rights accompanied by protests and demonstrations, although not in rural Deane. Yusuf’s cousin faced scrutiny from an aggressive police officer about her mixed-race grandchildren. She lied that they were “pure Afghans” like herself. Now the family is considering going into hiding.
Active
Themes
The women part ways, with Millie going to the hardware store and Odette heading for the post office, where she mails her cards and cashes her most recent money order. The cashier counts out the money reluctantly, wondering aloud what an Aboriginal woman needs so much cash for.
Active
Themes
After buying the groceries, Odette decides to visit the doctor. Sissy wants to ride up and down the street on her bicycle while she waits, but she knows Odette wouldn’t approve. She just sits on a bench near the now-defunct movie theater eating an apple. The poster for the last movie shown there, Imitation of Life, still hangs in a frame on the theater’s wall. Sissy didn’t see it, but she heard other girls at school recounting its plot. They said it was about a “part-Black girl” who spurns her Black mother so she can pass as White.
Active
Themes
In the doctor’s office, the neatly dressed, middle-aged doctor, Nathan Singer, greets Odette with unaffected courtesy. Odette, whose last experience with a White doctor was unpleasant and ineffective, feels nervous, but Dr. Singer listens carefully to her complaints and carries out a complete, professional physical exam. As he does, she notices the numbers tattooed on his forearm. Dr. Singer needs x-rays—which Odette can only get at the hospital in Gatlin—to properly diagnose her. He makes an appointment for her on the following Thursday. As he concludes the visit, Odette asks where he’s from. Poland, he says. She knows a little about what happened to Jewish people during World War II, but she doesn’t ask further questions.
Active
Themes
Much to her dismay, when Odette emerges from the doctor’s office, Bill Shea and Sergeant Lowe are questioning Sissy. Odette insists that it’s time for her and Sissy to go home, but Lowe won’t let them go until he’s warned Odette that “change is coming.” Claiming that he’s only concerned about Sissy’s well-being, he warns Odette about the danger of letting a girl with her “potential slip back.” Shea silently observes with a hang-dog expression on his face. When they get home, Odette tells Sissy not to worry about “that policeman.” Sissy says she won’t, but Odette doesn’t believe her.
