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Chapter 22
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
John wakes from his dream feeling better than he has in decades. He goes outside and discovers his motorcycle covered in raccoon excrement. Furious, John calls out that he didn’t eat the raccoons’ ancestor, though his denial is less than convincing. An elderly raccoon appears and speaks to him, and John makes a deal with the raccoons.
The climax of John’s feud with the racoons is comedic, full of scatological humor and John’s comically poor attempts to lie to the racoons. The feud between an ancient demigod and these residents of the forests is a serious one that speaks to John’s ancientness and his complicated relationship to other living thing. The narrative imbues it with humor to emphasize that even the most ancient grudges and feelings of wrongdoing can be lightened.
Themes
Maggie meets with Crystal Park. Crystal insists that Maggie needs to do something with the land besides “just let it be” in order to satisfy the white locals and politicians who resent the expansion of the Reserve. When Virgil goes home for lunch, Wayne tells him that if John/Nanabush won’t leave when Wayne tells him to, Wayne will challenge him to a physical fight. Virgil returns to school, and after class his teacher informs him that no one has seen Dakota since lunch. Virgil skips class and enlists Wayne in helping him find Dakota, who he believes has gone looking for John.
Crystal continues to represent the view of white colonial Canada at large. She has no personal investment in the land; instead, she believes it must be productive and useful to prove its value to her constituents and other white Canadians who don’t believe First Nations Reserves should get more land.
Themes
Virgil and Wayne track John to a road by the forest, where he delivers boxes of food to a horde of raccoons, throwing handfuls of meat, produce, and processed snacks for them to feast on. When the raccoons demand more, John brings all the food from Sammy’s house. He gives it to the raccoons, and they declare the feud over. Virgil and Wayne are stunned, but Virgil pushes his uncle to act, so Wayne discreetly breaks the headlight off of John’s motorcycle. He then approaches John (whose eyes are now yellow), addresses him as Nanabush, and shows him the headlight to instigate a fight.
The resolution to John/Nanabush’s feud with the racoons is simple: he killed and ate their ancestor, so now he feeds them. The fact that he resolves a centuries-long animosity with processed snacks is comedic, but it also highlights another way in which the modern, industrialized, and colonized world interacts with the natural world. Virgil and Wayne once again watch John converse with the racoons, and though they are still taken aback, this time they have accepted that the stories of Nanabush are true. This, combined with Wayne’s newfound bond with Virgil, gives him the courage to confront John/Nanabush.
Themes
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John taunts Wayne. Wayne tells Virgil to get to safety, and when Virgil does, Wayne attacks John. The combat escalates when both men climb into the trees and continue to fight across the forest canopy. Dakota finds Virgil at the edge of the forest. She has seen everything, but she doesn’t understand what it means. Virgil tells her that John is Nanabush, but Dakota’s parents raised her in “the Canadian lifestyle” and chose not to teach her about Anishnawbe culture or history. Wayne descends from the trees, battered and exhausted, and declares the fight a tie. Wayne falls asleep, and Dakota and Virgil search for John.
Wayne has immersed himself in Anishnawbe culture like no one else of his generation on the Reserve, which makes him uniquely equipped to take on John. The escalation of the fight to the treetops indicates the surreal, mythical nature of the conflict. It also highlights both men’s connection to the land. Dakota does not share Wayne’s intimate knowledge of her own history, and her unfamiliarity with Anishnawbe stories and culture made her especially vulnerable to John’s charms.
Themes
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John retreats to the roof of Sammy’s house, marveling at how Wayne fights like an animal. He focuses his efforts on healing himself in time for Maggie’s press conference as he watches Virgil and Dakota help Wayne out of the woods. Sammy returns home, having witnessed from a distance the treetop fight between Wayne and John. He fears he is going mad, and he tries to drown his sorrows in beer.
Wayne’s careful study of how native Canadian animals move has granted him a similar skillset to John, who himself is more than human. The importance of the press conference to John speaks to his feelings about Maggie: he cares about her, but he mostly wants to see his plan to win her over come to fruition. In contrast, Virgil leaves behind his mission to drive out John in favor of helping Wayne.
Themes
