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Chapter 23
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
Reverend Greenleaf’s narrative continues. While things at the Mission remained peaceful and orderly, he heard news that other Aboriginal Australians were being captured and forced into laboring for the Stations. Meanwhile, political unrest was growing among in Massacre Plains, though all factions hated the Aboriginal Australians. One night, six White men broke into the Mission and set the men’s quarters on fire. The men claimed the residents speared their cattle and were intent on vengeance. Greenleaf was knocked unconscious and woke to discover two women had been kidnapped and a male resident, Wowhely, was fatally wounded trying to save them. Greenleaf prayed over the dying man and allowed the residents to conduct their private ceremony before burying him in the Mission graveyard.
Greenleaf’s Mission remains a safe haven for Aboriginal Australians, outside of which they are at risk of enslavement. But even Greenleaf’s authority can’t protect the residents from the White settlers’ racism and hatred, as they once again invade with the intent of abusing the indigenous people. Regardless of whether the settlers’ claims are true, their desire for dominance emphasizes colonialism as an inherently violent practice. In allowing the residents to bury Wowhely according to their own customs, Greenleaf seems to recognize his own complicity as a colonizer and feel ashamed of his role in the residents’ oppression.
Active
Themes
