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Chapter 12
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Yield, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Exploitation
The Power of Language and Cultural History
Family, Identity, and Belonging
Collective Trauma, Memory, and Guilt
Human Spirituality and the Natural World
Summary
Analysis
Albert’s next dictionary entry discusses dandan, which means “scattered all about in confusion.” He uses this word to describe the whirly-whirly—a dust tornado which Albert has only seen twice in his life. The first arrived during a performance of “The Development of Australia,” in which he played “Half-Caste Boy Number Two.” The ancestors told Albert that dandan are bad spirits to avoid. When Albert turned 15, he left the Boys’ Home and began working, but really he was ngaa-bun-gaa-nha (“searching”) for home. In his long life, there are plenty of things Albert hasn’t done, including traveling to murriyan, “the sea.” While he is grateful to be a time traveler, he wishes he could have grown up with family.
That the ancestors consider whirly-whirlies bad spirits suggests they associate these scattering winds with disunity and isolation. Albert’s participation in the historical play provides an example of how Australian society continued to marginalize Aboriginal Australian children in the post-colonial years. Despite living in the same place as his ancestors all his life, Albert longs for more living family and feels he is still searching for a concrete sense of home and belonging.
Active
Themes
Albert reflects on reuniting with his sister Mary and her son, Jimmy. Both he and Elsie sensed Jimmy had nguru (“evil”) in him, which was later confirmed. When Albert needs to process difficult emotions, he babirra (“sings”) in the fields, which comforts him. The last word he defines here is manhang, meaning “soil, earth, dirt.” While he and Elsie presided over Prosperous, they carefully nurtured the farmland. Now, the summer rains have dried up and invasive weeds, like one called Paterson’s curse, have choked the soil. Albert has since read about the billions of microbes that live in the dirt, as countless as stars. The knowledge highlighted his own ignorance and confirmed his notion that everything in the world is alive.
