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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The City We Became, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cities and Gentrification
Community, Diversity, and Prejudice
Ethics and Nature
Beliefs, Concepts, and Stereotypes
Art
Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Paolo senses something wrong in Inwood Hill Park and investigates. Approaching the rock monument, he recognizes that the “brinier” odor in the air and the money on the ground hint at a fight between the Enemy and Manhattan. Then he notices approximately 20 people, mostly “white and well dressed,” all wearing white and speaking to no one, a phone, or a pet. Paolo takes a photo of the crowd. When his phone emits a “shutter-sound,” they stop talking and stare at him. Paolo lights a cigarette, which seems to confuse them. Slowly, he backs away. When he’s out of sight, he hears them resume talking.
A“brinier” odor in the air alerts Paolo to the Enemy’s presence, which once again suggests that the Enemy, in its true form, is similar to a saltwater organism. The Enemy’s presence has caused rich white people to descend on the neighborhood and to create a crowd without actually talking to each other—which suggests both that the Enemy is using gentrification as a weapon and that gentrification is the opposite of true community or human connection. That Paolo uses a cigarette to confuse the jabbering crowd suggests something about the concept “cigarette” gives Paolo power.
Themes
Once Paolo exits the park, he examines his photo. In it the crowd’s faces are distorted, as are areas “just behind each person’s head, or near their shoulders.” He texts the photo to an international number with the attached message: “It’s boroughs. There will be five of them. And I’m going to need your help.”
The tendril influencing the racist white woman who harassed Manny and Bel was growing out of her neck. The distortion in the photo “behind each person’s head, or near their shoulders” suggests that they, too, have neck tendrils—and that the tendrils don’t show up on camera. The distortion around the tendril-infected people’s faces, meanwhile, implies that the infection destroys people’s individuality, symbolized by their particular, recognizable faces.
Themes
