Previous
Chapter 17
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 and Jacquie walk in the bird sanctuary by Lake Merritt. Opal has just recently heard back from her doctor after getting blood tests. She knows she can’t tell anyone about the diagnosis and that she’ll find a way to handle it herself. Opal and Jacquie pass a totem pole. Jacquie says she doesn’t remember it being there, and Opal says it’s just been restored and gotten a new coat of paint. Jacquie is back in Opal and the boys’ lives now, and no one’s completely sure what that means or will look like going forward. Jacquie is newly sober, and the best thing she can do for everyone at this point, she thinks, is to maintain that sobriety. Jacquie recently met a man too, Michael, after a meeting.
Opal Viola shows again that she is trying as hard as she can to raise the boys so that they have every chance at success, but the novel also suggests that the burdens may be too heavy for one person to carry on their own. The novel shows, then, the impacts of addiction; Opal Viola feels like she is on her own because she so often has been as the result of Jacquie’s and Jamie’s addictions, both of which led to Opal Viola raising the boys on her own.
Themes
Jacquie and Michael go to a diner together and seem to have a connection, but when Jacquie later tries to call his number, she hears a message saying the number is disconnected. At first, Jacquie wants to drink because of this, but she decides to go for a walk instead. Jacquie also notices that something seems to be off with Opal Viola. She asks, but Opal Viola promises there’s nothing wrong. Opal Viola then asks Jacquie if she would like to go with her and the boys to a sunrise ceremony on Alcatraz. Opal Viola says maybe they should start going to more community events and that it seems important for the boys to get a better sense of their identity. Jacquie at first demurs but then agrees to go to the ceremony on Alcatraz, thinking that Opal Viola might be right that it would be good for the boys to go too.
Themes
