Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Police Brutality, Corruption, and Systemic Racism
Healing, Progress, and Collective Consciousness
Justice, Perspective, and Ambiguity
Individuals vs. Institutions
Action vs. Symbolic Gesture
Summary
Analysis
Smith interviews Chris Oh, a medical student, and Walter Park’s stepson. Oh reveals his stepfather doesn’t know he’s had a partial lobectomy after the bullet passed through his temple and lodged itself in his frontal lobe. Chris explains how a person’s higher learning skills and overall character come from the frontal lobe. He pauses before meditating on how different Walter’s life is now that he can’t do many of things he used to do, such as drive.
If anything, Chris Oh’s explanation downplays the ways his stepfather’s injuries have changed his life: his personality is irreparably altered, and he will never be capable of completing even simple everyday activities, such as driving. The placement of the Park family’s story after accounts like Katie Miller’s complicates the audience’s sense of morality and shows how justice is complex and rarely absolute. Miller’s idea of justice has caused the Park family to weather a devastating tragedy.
Themes
