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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wandering Stars, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonization, Racism, and Institutional Violence
Intergenerational Trauma
Addiction
Survival vs. Resilience
Identity and Cultural Erasure
Summary
Analysis
Opal Viola lives with her boys—and now her sister Jacquie, too—on Fruitvale Avenue in East Oakland. Opal Viola adopted the boys after their mom, Jamie, died. Technically, Opal Viola is their great-aunt, but through Native tradition, she’s their grandmother. Opal Viola had been able to manage raising the boys until the shooting at the powwow. Then, everything changed. Now, Orvil is struggling with the aftermath of being shot. After starting the first semester of high school online, he’s prepared to begin in person in January. Opal Viola takes out a loan from the bank to help pay for the tuition at the private Catholic school.
This passage shows how much Orvil and his brothers’ lives have been impacted and shaped by addiction, as they lost their mom early in their lives and have since been raised by Opal Viola. Notably, Opal Viola seems to be doing everything in her power to try and help the boys have the best possible chance at success. The novel suggests, though, that addiction is a powerful thing for anyone to go up against and, despite Opal Viola’s best efforts, the boys’ lives may still be irrevocably altered by addiction.
Themes
