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Chapter 3
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 arrives in Australia’s sweltering heat. She rents a car and drives to the town of Massacre Plains, whose dry landscape seems desperate. The impoverished locals are divided by the Murrumby River; people known as “Chocolate Milk” (Aboriginal Australians from the Mission) live in the north while most Black people live in southern Vegemite Valley. The middle class “Minties” occupy the center of town. Poppy Albert used to call the river “Big Water” though it dried up when August was a girl. In a convenience store, a man recognizes August as a Gondiwindi and expresses his condolences. Despite her attempts to forget, August has kept tabs on home through her grandparents and online missing persons forums, searching for signs of her sister, Jedda.
The river’s depletion seems to reflect the general poverty and desperation of Massacre Plains. The people of Massacre Plains are segregated according to racial identity, with marginalized Black and Aboriginal Australian people occupying the outskirts of town. Such separation is likely a remnant of colonial oppression. Despite August’s long absence, the stranger in the convenience store identifies her, not just as an Aboriginal Australian, but as a Gondiwindi mourning Albert. This interaction is indicative of the town’s insular population. The mention of Jedda implies she disappeared, but August seems reluctant to dwell on this incident in detail.
Active
Themes
August arrives at Prosperous Farm—her grandparents’ home. The Gondiwindis have always lived along the river. The property contains several houses, wheat fields, a rundown church, and an overgrown garden. August circles the property, noting all the secret places she and Jedda discovered as children. Finally, she enters a house guarded by a friendly dog. When she calls for Nana (Elsie), her grandmother calls her Jedda’s name. August corrects her, but Elsie still looks at her like she’s searching for her missing granddaughter. August thinks of her family’s past grief in light of this new sorrow. Elsie finds it hard to look at August because she can see her suffering. To August, Elsie seems confused and old.
August is returning to her childhood home and her ancestors’ homeland, emphasizing the connection between her Aboriginal identity and this place. The property’s vastness contains many memories for August, who seems once again to willfully repress them. Elsie mistakenly calls out for Jedda, suggesting the trauma of losing her other granddaughter still feels fresh. Both August and Elsie perceive each other’s pain but seem reluctant to acknowledge it.
Active
Themes
Together, August and Elsie prepare tea and cook food. Elsie lets the silence linger, resenting August’s long absence. Finding the scrutiny unbearable, August asks about the dog and whether her mother (Jolene) is coming to the funeral. Elsie thinks August’s mother will qualify for a day’s release, implying she’s in prison. Elsie tells August she’s going to lose the house to “city folk,” and there’s nothing the Council can do to fight it. The land, apparently, doesn’t belong to them. Later, August settles in to the attic bedroom among Poppy Albert’s papers. She wonders what he and God would think of her now. Gazing out the window, August imagines herself and Jedda running through the wheat fields as children.
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Themes
