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Chapter 24
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
Dakota and Virgil bring Wayne to the medical clinic, and Virgil fills Dakota in about the stories of Nanabush. He leaves Dakota with Wayne and walks, exhausted and alone, to his flat-topped rock. There he finds John, who asks why Virgil likes this rock. Virgil reluctantly admits that he likes watching the trains go by and thinking about the world beyond Otter Lake. John reassures Virgil that Maggie is safe, and he muses that despite living for so many years, he has never learned from his mistakes. Virgil asks if John planned to take Maggie to the land of the dead, and John laughs that he wanted to take her to a motel west of the Reserve. The two laugh together.
Now that John is no longer a threat to Virgil’s family or his community, and now that Virgil knows who John truly is, the two can converse without distrust or anger. Virgil understands John/Nanabush thanks to Lillian’s stories, and he is starting to help Dakota learn those stories as well so that she can gain a similar understanding. Virgil’s curiosity about and yearning for the world beyond the Reserve is also the first hint that although his grief for his father prompted Virgil to skip school, he does think about his future.
Themes
Virgil asks if John is really Nanabush, and John asks what Nanabush means to Virgil. Virgil replies that Nanabush is both a fool and a teacher, and that Lillian would say Nanabush “is us.” John enlists Virgil’s help pushing over a boulder and shows him petroglyphs John carved their thousands of years ago. He explains that all pictographs and petroglyphs across North America are graffiti he left there in his travels, in the language of whoever’s land he was on.
John/Nanabush’s identity as a trickster lets him serve as both a mythical figure and as someone closely connected to the communities and nations that believe in him. He is immature and often a source of humor, whether at his own expense or someone else’s. That relationship to humor makes him relatable and able to be learned from.
Themes
Virgil asks why John came to Otter Lake. John explains that Lillian was the last person to truly believe in him, and he and Virgil take a moment of silence to mourn Lillian. They talk about life, and John advises Virgil that it is important to find silliness and nonsense sometimes. Virgil asks where John will go next, and John replies that his fun comes from not knowing.
Despite John’s selfishness, he is capable of meaningful connections, and part of caring about someone is grieving when you lose them. John’s grief for Lillian is the reason the plot of the novel takes place. His advice to Virgil emphasizes that embracing comedy doesn’t ignore the grief and tragedies of life—it simply makes them easier to bear.
Themes
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John gives Virgil a ride home on his motorcycle. When they reach the Seconds’ house, Virgil is stunned to see that John has shed his white appearance and now looks like an Indigenous man. Virgil says goodbye to John (now Nanabush), who reminds him that there is no Anishnawbe word for goodbye––only ga-waabamin, “I’ll be seeing you.” Virgil gives Nanabush one of the braids of sweetgrass Nanabush left by the rock, and Nanabush rides down the road that leads to the water, assuring Virgil that “there are no such things as dead ends.”
Nanabush leaves Otter Lake without resolving any of its problems, much as he leaves without committing to a final goodbye. However, he has restored a spirit of magic to the town and helped Virgil, Maggie, and Wayne develop as people. His parting words urge Virgil to embrace the unknown of the future and imagine a life that excites him, demonstrating the inspirational power of Nanabush’s brand of chaos.
Themes
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