White Spirit

by

Cate Kennedy

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Themes and Colors
Multiculturalism, Authenticity, and Appropriation Theme Icon
Racism and Prejudice Theme Icon
Selfishness, Selflessness, and Connection Theme Icon
Bureaucracy and Systemic Inequality Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in White Spirit, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Multiculturalism, Authenticity, and Appropriation

In her short story “White Spirit,” set in modern-day Australia, Cate Kennedy shows the limits of multiculturalism, specifically when these efforts toward diversity are spearheaded by the white people who hold the power in that society. The story focuses on an unnamed, white, Australian narrator who works for a public housing centre and oversees a grant to commission a mural at the centre depicting the different, mostly nonwhite refugee communities living there. As the story…

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Racism and Prejudice

Throughout “White Spirit,” the narrator, other staff at the public housing centre, and the mural artists benefit from their whiteness and even at times make prejudiced and racist assumptions about the mostly nonwhite refugees they work for. While the white organizers at the centre intend to create a positive living environment and community for the residents, in actuality they often are patronizing and unhelpful to the mostly nonwhite centre residents. In this way, the…

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Selfishness, Selflessness, and Connection

“White Spirit” shows the ways that the white character’s good intentions often, through lack of effort or understanding, end up serving selfish ends. In addition, the story suggests that many of the characters may not, perhaps without even realizing it, actually have authentic good intentions. Rather, many of the characters seem to “perform” what might be described as a guise of selflessness in order to actually achieve selfish ends. The story drives this point home…

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Bureaucracy and Systemic Inequality

The narrator’s desire to be kind and helpful is often thwarted by the bureaucratic structure of her job, placing her in a ladder of systemic inequality which limits every individual’s ability to support other people. While the work of the centre is intended to be altruistic, its mere existence is indicative of a system of economic inequality which leads to an inherited scarcity of and competition for resources. The mural’s very existence comes…

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