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Chapter 23
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
Sean and Mike both sell the pills their dad makes, which they call Blanx because each batch contains something different and could be made of a combination of hallucinogens, opioids, MDMA, ketamine, or seemingly any other substance, and taking them is a kind of “fill-in-the-blank” experience. Sometimes Orvil sells the pills too. Orvil now calls himself a musician and has stopped going to school. He spends most of his time at Sean’s house. Tom seems to have disappeared, and Orvil wanders around the house when Mike is out driving for Lyft or Uber. One day, Orvil finds a grand piano in a room by itself, and Sean tells him that his mom used to play.
Addiction leads both Sean and Orvil to sell pills, causing them both, the novel suggests, to fall further into addiction. In a sense, at this point in the novel, Orvil is just trying to survive the profound emotional pain he is feeling. He seems to dimly sense other possibilities for healing—like those presented through music. But he also seems so occupied with his increasing dependency on Blanx that he is unable to pursue the kind of beauty and resilience that the novel argues can provide hope and healing.
Themes
When Sean first gave Orvil Blanx, he said they were better than what Orvil had been taking. Orvil takes the first pill before a walk with Opal Viola. On the car ride, they see a deer with other baby deer trailing her. Orvil tries to remember what baby deer are called. He goes through a blundering series of attempts to name them to Opal Viola, who seems to know that something is going on with him. Back in the car after the walk, Orvil tells Opal Viola that he feels like he messed everything up. Opal Viola says it’s not his fault and then asks him repeatedly if he’s okay, but Orvil doesn’t answer. He feels like his high is reaching its apex. Opal Viola then tells Orvil that she’s getting a biopsy because doctors found a mass that could be cancerous. Opal Viola tells Orvil that his brothers don’t know about the biopsy.
The novel further charts Orvil’s gradual descent into addiction in this passage, showing how getting high comes to pervade every aspect of Orvil’s life. Even when Opal Viola is confiding her possible cancer diagnosis in him, Orvil is high. Notably, the novel intersperses Orvil’s feelings of being high with feelings closer to shame and failure, pointing to the idea that addiction can become a vicious circle, as getting high seems to lead Orvil to do things that he then later feels he has to get high to forget.
Themes
That night, Orvil tells Sean over the phone that he likes the Blanx, and then Orvil takes another pill. Sean says he’ll bring more pills to school the next day, and when Orvil says he won’t be able to pay, Sean says they’ll think of something. Orvil thinks that means maybe he’ll deal Blanx, and he likes the idea. Orvil then plays guitar and thinks that the music he’s making sounds better than it ever has before. The next day at school, Sean slips Orvil more Blanx, and Orvil takes another pill. It makes Orvil feel confident; he speaks up in class, something he never usually does. For as long as Orvil can remember, he’s been too shy to raise his hand in class. Back home, he plays guitar, and two hours go by without him noticing.
Themes
