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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cultural Maintenance vs. Loss
Grief and Trauma
Colonialism and Land Use
Stories and Religion
Humor
Summary
Analysis
Late at night, during a thunderstorm, John breaks into the museum in search of something hidden in its vaults. Meanwhile, Maggie tries to sleep, concerned about Virgil, Wayne, and John, while Sammy is plagued by the nightmares that return him nightly to the horrors of residential school. John emerges from the museum, successful. He rides his motorcycle through the rain and visits Lillian’s grave, finally fulfilling the promise he made her as a teenager to bring her a thunderstorm.
John once again proves that although his moral code doesn’t adhere to human morals, he does care about fulfilling promises and honoring people he cares about. While John’s grief for Lillian inspires him to help Otter Lake, Sammy’s trauma and his grief for the childhood he lost in the residential school have trapped him in that experience well into adulthood.
Themes
