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Chapter 6
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
Pratt takes a train to San Francisco, which is more taxing than any train ride he can remember. He wonders if it’s his age that has made this ride worse, or maybe it’s the aftereffects of smallpox, which he’s still coping with. At his grandson’s house, Pratt is exhausted. He meets his great-grandson, who has been named Richard Henry Pratt III, before going to the guest room. When Pratt goes to sleep, he dreams of an earthquake that never ends.
Pratt, though he has committed heinous actions and been the principal authority at a school where abuse ran rampant, is allowed to exist as a normal person in the world as if he hasn’t done anything wrong. The novel points that out to show how white supremacy has been knit into the fabric of power within the U.S. government and its institutions, allowing people in power to do heinous things with impunity and without fear of any kind of reprisal.
Active
Themes
