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Chapter 20
Themes
and Colors
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
Loother hates being able to see how transparently people seem to act at school; they pay attention to trends but pretend not to, and they try to conceal how they feel about things by acting cool. Loother thinks the rich white kids are the worst people at school, exhibiting a kind of unearned confidence, but Loother also wants to be like them. Loother doesn’t talk much because he’s shy, but people also think he’s angry because he voices his opinions directly. In general, Loother hates school, but he does like a girl, whose name is Vee. Loother has always wanted a girlfriend. One day, Loother goes up to Vee and gives her a piece of paper with his phone number on it. “What am I supposed to do with this?” Vee asks, laughing.
While Orvil tries to cope with his painful emotions through drugs, and Lony seeks to establish a connection to Native culture, Loother seems to care mostly about romance and relationships. Loother’s assessment of white people at school provides an example of the novel’s assessment of some of the impacts of living with the legacy of white supremacist erasure of Native culture. Loother dislikes white rich kids for the confidence they have gained through historically-rooted systems of oppression that have resulted in ill-gotten and unquestioned power. But despite himself, Loother also idealizes the carefree attitude that comes with that kind of unexamined power.
Active
Themes
Loother enjoys writing and has been trying to rap, but he’s not sure how to feel about himself rapping. He wonders if he is appropriating Black culture and isn’t sure if it’s different if a Native person appropriates Black culture versus if a white person does. Loother then tries writing in a way that isn’t rapping, but he’s embarrassed to call what he writes poetry. Vee and Loother end up in a relationship together, and Loother spends a lot of his time texting her. One day, Loother texts her to ask if she wants to make their relationship official, and he can feel his anxiety mounting each minute that she doesn’t respond.
Again, while Orvil looks for what he’s missing emotionally through drugs and music, Loother seems to look for it through writing and romantic relationships. The novel suggests, then, that art and relationships may present healthier and more sustainable ways to look for the kind of emotional fulfillment that Orvil hopes (and ultimately fails) to find through drugs.
Active
Themes
Loother and Lony wait outside one of Jacquie’s AA meetings because Orvil isn’t around to watch them. Recently, Orvil has been spending all his time at Sean Price’s house. Lony has downloaded an app to help him practice ESP. Lony has also started a “campaign,” as he calls it, to call strangers and tell them nice things to counteract the insults from online trolls. Loother and Lony go outside to wait in the car and play the rhyme game, a game where they challenge each other with different words to see if they can come up with a word that rhymes. On the drive home, they stop and get burritos. Back home, Lony shows Jacquie and Loother videos he has saved. Most of them are videos of cute dogs.
Active
Themes
