Selfishness, Selflessness, and Connection Theme Analysis

“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 through the narrator’s arc in the story, in which she comes to see the falseness of the selfless guise, even in herself, and, further, to recognize the ways in which her actual selflessness has allowed her to make a real connection with the women from the centre who come to her fabric-painting class.

The false selflessness that so many of the white character’s display is evident in the mural artists, Mandy and Jake. The artists say they want to connect with the community, using their art for selfless purposes, but their actions say otherwise. The narrator remembers how, in their interview for the mural painting job, Mandy and Jake had said they wanted to meet and collaborate with the community and insisted that they did this kind of work because of the “rich sense of connection…achieved working alongside the very people you were depicting.” However, in practice, they remain distant from the community they are depicting. None of the people living in the complex go near them, and Mandy and Jake themselves make no effort to reach out and foster this connection they supposedly want. The only time Mandy and Jake are shown interacting with the community they represent in the mural is at the end of the story, after the art is already finished. At the celebratory event, they approach a group of resident teenagers and try talking to them, but the narrator notes that Mandy looks “self conscious” and that the teenage boys avoid eye contact. The lack of effort on Mandy and Jake’s part to include or connect to the community suggests that Mandy and Jake’s interest in doing the mural had more to do with furthering their careers or taking on a paid job than in truly trying to do something selfless and collaborative with the community.

Like the mural artists, the narrator herself struggles to truly connect with the community. The narrator does have good intentions about supporting the people living in the complex, especially the women in her fabric painting class who she knows more personally. But she also uses the women in her class and trades on her “goodness” when it is convenient for her to do so. When she is about to get a parking ticket, she gets out of it by telling the parking inspector that she was buying stuff for the “group of refugee women” in her class. The narrator comments that she hates “trotting that out” and admits to herself that it’s a white lie. But almost immediately she justifies the lie, thinking to herself: “this is my money we’re talking about, my free time, my goodwill.” Here, the narrator believes the lie—and the way she used the women’s refugee status as an excuse for her convenience—is acceptable because of the importance of her own needs. In the moment, her selfish impulse overtakes her better intentions.

The narrator and the artist’s self-serving actions (which operate under the guise of selflessness) stand in contrast to the actions of several of the residents in the complex, who behave in more truly selfless ways. When the narrator tries to convince the women in her fabric painting class to come to the celebration for the mural, they agree to come, even though they are obviously wary of or disinterested in the project. Their willingness to come seems to be founded on wanting to do something for the narrator, not because of any benefit to themselves. Later, when the narrator sees the women in her class at the event, they acknowledge her in a way that the narrator recognizes as the “smiles of the truly dutiful, the truly kind.” Kennedy’s use of the word “truly” here is key, as it establishes a difference between the empty, ultimately selfish “kindness” that the mural represents and the real selflessness of the women showing up to the event even when they may not care about or even like the mural.

Accordingly, the narrator has her only moment of true selfless connection through her relationships with these same women in her fabric painting class. At the end of the story, as the narrator, upset and disappointed by the mural she now understands is an expression of control rather than celebration or the centre residents, tries to leave the event, Jameela from her fabric painting class stops her to take a photo with them. While the narrator is frustrated and “drained of energy,” when the women in her class call her back for the photo, she joins them. In this moment, she smiles, and it’s not clear if she is smiling for the women or with them. That lack of clarity is intended—the narrator is doing both, she is doing something to help uplift the women, and she is in turn uplifted by them. In this way, the story presents a hopeful end, as the narrator has a moment of connecting with the community in an authentic way that the mural project, and the other people behind it, did not.

“White Spirit” portrays a narrator who does ostensibly altruistic, charitable work for the public good to show how easily selfless intentions can slip into selfish actions. By showing how the narrator’s own perception of the mural and the work the centre does changes over the course of the story, “White Spirit” shows how real selfless decisions may not always be the easiest to make. Ultimately, the story ends with a hopeful but ambiguous ending. The narrator does connect with the women in her class, but it seems as though she is the exception to the rule. The narrator has done real work to foster a relationship with her class, but the same cannot be said of the rest of the white power characters. The story makes clear that true, authentic connection across groups is possible, but that it is also rare and takes work to achieve.