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Chapter 38
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
August parks outside the council office. Joey threatens to drive off without her, just like she and Eddie left him at the pharmacy when they were kids. August returns to the car and apologizes to Joey for leaving him to take the fall for whatever crime they’d done as a group. Joey forgives her. August tells him Aunt Nicki stole Poppy Albert’s dictionary. She thinks whatever he wrote is important. Joey suggests they break the library’s window to get inside the council building. August throws a rock, which fails to shatter the window. Remembering how Poppy loved the library, she suggests they go back to Prosperous and talk to Aunt Nicki in the morning.
Having made significant progress in confronting her own trauma, August must now face the pain she’s caused others, specifically Joey. Rather than run like she usually does, August sits in the discomfort and makes amends, illustrating that the only way to release suffering is to process it. Based on context, it seems likely that Joey took the fall for setting the Falstaff pharmacy on fire, though Eddie and August were also present. While August fully believes Albert’s dictionary is instrumental to saving Prosperous, she is unwilling to betray her grandfather’s principles in order to get it.
Active
Themes
Back at Prosperous, the fire is out. With the house stable, August and Joey camp on the veranda. The next morning, a reporter arrives to document the protest. The phone rings—it’s Elsie, checking to see if her house is still standing. Missy takes the phone and August fills her in. Missy wants to join the protesters. August and Joey agree. The phone rings again and a teenage girl’s voice tells them to “get the fuck out of this town!” August doesn’t take it personally, knowing the girl is likely frightened and ignorant. She and Joey walk toward where protesters have chained themselves to the mine’s machinery. In her mind, August tells Jedda and Albert that she’s here.
The presence of reporters means that Rinepalm’s takeover of Prosperous is finally getting mainstream attention. August, Missy, and Joey see this as a critical moment in which they can make a genuine difference. The young crank caller has clearly inherited her own family’s history of bigotry against Aboriginal Australians. Where August might have once taken the girl’s hatred to heart, now she is able to see ignorance for what it is and remain unaffected. Finally confident in her Aboriginal identity and sense of belonging, August aligns herself with her ancestors and takes action to defend their shared land.
Active
Themes
August locates Mandy chained to the drilling fence. She welcomes them as “[f]ellow water protectors,” but Joey declares himself and August “custodians of the land.” The protesters cheer. A few hours later, Eddie comes outside, irritated by August and Joey’s participation in the protest. Joey says the mine has no right to this land. Missy arrives and chains herself beside her son. They invite Eddie to join but he declines and heads back to the house. Police arrive and order the protesters to leave. Mandy replies they’ll leave when Rinepalm does. Another protester passes out bandanas to protect from pepper spray.
Active
Themes
Mandy tells August to cover her face so the police can’t identify her. According to Mandy, once the state knows who someone is, they can surveil them. August doesn’t believe she’s that important, but Mandy protests. She believes remaining anonymous is one way to win people to their side by making issues like the mine’s encroachment personal to everyone, not just one specific group. Though people tend to forget they’re migrants on foreign soil nowadays, Mandy argues that sharing responsibility for the land is the path toward forming a collective identity and fostering respect between groups. Elsie and Mary arrive and chide August, Joey, and Missy for chaining themselves to the fence. Joey insists they have to try. Elsie understands.
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August says they’re going to save Elsie’s home, but Elsie replies that Albert was home. August understands the sentiment, but she wants to protect the land which has comforted her. Later, police in riot gear advance on the protesters. Joey sends Missy away so she doesn’t get hurt. The officers hose and tear-gas them. Other protesters arrive, including more of August’s relatives, and the police carry some of their number away. August feels connected to her ancestors in bondage, though she has chosen to stay here in chains. Before night falls, a bulldozer uproots more trees. Hearing Aunt Mary wailing from Prosperous, August sees Aunt Nicki has arrived with a cassette recorder and a stack of paper.
Active
Themes
