Tendrils Symbol in The City We Became

The white tendrils infecting New York City represent outside forces that can manipulate a community to stoke prejudices within it and to homogenize it. When characters, Manny first sees the tendrils, he recognizes that they exist not only in humanity’s baseline reality but in another dimension as well, suggesting that they are an outside, alien force. When Manny next encounters a tendril, it has infected a person, and its symbolic meaning becomes clearer. The tendril, attached to the back of a racist white woman’s neck, convinces her to harass Manny (a light-skinned Black man), accusing him of being a drug dealer. When Manny orders the creature manipulating the racist white woman to appear, she transforms into the Woman in White—the novel’s antagonist, an entity from a parallel dimension seeking to destroy New York City. In the novel, great cities are living creatures that choose human avatars to represent and defend them, and Manny is the avatar of Manhattan. The Woman in White uses the tendril to draw out the white New Yorker’s anti-Black prejudice and turn her against Manny, a fellow community member who is in fact their community’s defender.

Throughout the novel, the Woman in White uses the tendrils to manipulate prejudiced New Yorkers to attack the city’s human avatars. Attacking the city’s human avatars is against New Yorker’s best interests, as the Woman in White’s goal is to destroy New York, whereas the avatars are trying to save it. At the Woman in White’s behests, a tendril-infected right-wing art collective called the Alt Artistes attacks the Bronx’s avatar, Bronca Siwanoy, when she refuses to display their bigoted art in the gallery she directs. In another instance, Conall McGuiness, a tendril-infected, misogynistic neo-Nazi, sexually assaults Staten Island’s avatar Aislyn Houlihan. Ironically, the attack makes Aislyn more willing to trust the Woman in White, who appears to Aislyn as another woman, and, therefore, a source of solidarity. The tendrils also thrive at sites of gentrification, such as local restaurants razed to make room for condos, or Starbucks locations in up-trending neighborhoods. This suggests that prejudice drives gentrification: people gentrify neighborhoods—making them homogenous and conforming—when they refuse to accept those neighborhoods’ preexisting diversity.

Tendrils Quotes in The City We Became

The The City We Became quotes below all refer to the symbol of Tendrils. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The tendril mass looms, ethereal and pale, more frightening as the cab accelerates. There is a beauty to it, he must admit—like some haunting, bioluminescent deep-sea organism dragged to the surface. It is an alien beauty, however, meant for some other environment, some other aether, and here in New York its presence is a contaminant. The very air around it has turned gray, and now that they’re closer, he can hear the air hissing as if the tendrils are somehow hurting the molecules of nitrogen and oxygen they touch. Manny’s been in New York for less than an hour and yet he knows, he knows, that cities are organic, dynamic systems. They are built to incorporate newness. But some new things become part of a city, helping it grow and strengthen—while some new things can tear it apart.

Related Characters: Manny (Manhattan), Madison

Related Symbols: Tendrils

Page Number and Citation: 45-46

Explanation and Analysis:

I am Manhattan, he thinks again, this time in a slow upwelling of despair. Every murderer. Every slave broker. Every slumlord who shut off the heat and froze children to death. Every stockbroker who got rich off war and suffering.

It’s only the truth. He doesn’t have to like it, though.

Related Characters: Manny (Manhattan), Bel Nguyen

Related Symbols: Tendrils, Police

Page Number and Citation: 81-82

Explanation and Analysis:

“I keep thinking about how, at the park, she kept switching between ‘we’ and ‘I’ like the pronouns were interchangeable. Like she couldn’t keep the words straight, and they didn’t really matter anyway.”

“Maybe this isn’t her first language.”

That’s partly it. But Manny suspects the problem is less linguistic than contextual. She doesn’t get English because English draws a distinction between the individual self and the collective plural, and wherever she comes from, whatever she is, that difference doesn’t mean the same thing. If there’s a difference at all.

Related Characters: Manny (Manhattan) (speaker), Brooklyn Thomason (Brooklyn) (speaker), Bronca Siwanoy (The Bronx), The Woman in White (The Enemy) (R’lyeh), Padmini Prakash (Queens), Veneza (Jersey City), New York City’s Avatar

Related Symbols: Tendrils

Page Number and Citation: 181

Explanation and Analysis:

“The Better New York Foundation—”

“Jesus, really?”

“Yes. Very well resourced, very private, and very dedicated to raising the city from its gritty image to the heights of prosperity and progress.”

Bronca actually pulls the receiver from her ear to glare at it for a moment. “I have never smelled a pile of bigger horseshit. That’s—” She shakes her head. “It’s gentrifier logic. Settler logic. They want the city without the ‘gritty’ people who make it what it is!”

Related Characters: Bronca Siwanoy (The Bronx) (speaker), Raul (speaker), The Woman in White (The Enemy) (R’lyeh), New York City’s Avatar

Related Symbols: Better New York Foundation, Tendrils

Page Number and Citation: 240

Explanation and Analysis:

Everything that happens everywhere else happens on Staten Island, too, but here people try not to see the indecencies, the domestic violence, the drug use. And then, having denied what’s right in front of their eyes, they tell themselves that at least they’re living in a good place full of good people. At least it’s not the city.

[…]

Evil comes from elsewhere, Matthew Houlihan believes. Evil is other people. She will leave him this illusion, mostly because she envies his ability to keep finding comfort in simple, black-and-white views of the world. Aislyn’s ability to do the same is rapidly eroding.

Related Characters: Aislyn Houlihan (Staten Island), The Woman in White (The Enemy) (R’lyeh), Paolo (São Paolo), Matthew Houlihan, Conall McGuiness

Related Symbols: Tendrils, Better New York Foundation

Page Number and Citation: 281

Explanation and Analysis:

There is an instant in which Aislyn’s mind tries to signal an alarm, doom, existential threat, all the usual fight-or-flight signals that are the job of the lizard brain. And if the gush of substance had been different somehow—something hideous, maybe—she would have started screaming.

Three things stop her. The first and most atavistic is that everything in her life has programmed her to associate evil with specific, easily definable things. Dark skin. Ugly people with scars or eyepatches or wheelchairs. Men. The Woman in White is the visual opposite of everything Aislyn has been taught to fear, and so . . . Even though intellectually Aislyn now has proof that what she’s seeing is just a guise, and the Woman in White’s true form could be anyone or anything . . .

. . . Aislyn also thinks, Well, she looks all right.

Related Characters: Aislyn Houlihan (Staten Island), The Woman in White (The Enemy) (R’lyeh), Matthew Houlihan, Conall McGuiness

Related Symbols: Tendrils

Page Number and Citation: 333

Explanation and Analysis:

Tendrils Symbol Timeline in The City We Became

The timeline below shows where the symbol Tendrils appears in The City We Became. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...driver (Madison) takes Manny toward FDR Drive, he sees a car pass with “feathery white tendrils” coming out of its wheels. Manny intuits that the tendrils exist in multiple dimensions, like... (full context)

When the Checker reaches FDR Drive, Manny sees more cars infected by white tendrils and then a 20- to 30-foot tendril growth coming out of the fast lane. Although... (full context)

...to Madison. She helps him use her emergency kit materials to divert cars around the tendril growth. As the growth gets bigger, Manny notes it smells like ocean—specifically, like “trimethylamine oxide.”... (full context)

...he’s not sure what for. With Manny clinging to the roof, Madison drives at the tendril growth. Manny opens the umbrella, but that use of it is somehow “still wrong.” Manny... (full context)

As the cab gets closer to the tendril growth, Manny holds the umbrella over his head. Somehow this gesture causes an energy “sheath”... (full context)

...sees the fiery hole their passage made in the growth, which burns through the remaining tendrils. His energy sheath dissipates, burning up tendrils attached to cars as it does so. Manny... (full context)

...phone. She threatens to call the police and calls them “druggie perverts.” Manny sees a tendril attached to the back of the woman’s neck and has an intense mental reaction: “Cordyceps,... (full context)

...was getting tired of faking ignorance and calls Bel “São Paolo.” Manny intuits that the tendril is helping some other creature control the woman’s body. The Woman examines Bel and asks... (full context)

Manny speculates the woman’s possession by the tendril is what happened to people who touched the growth on FDR. He asks the Woman... (full context)

...with talk. He asks whether he killed her on FDR. She tells him that the tendril growth on FDR was a “toehold” that remained after her fight with a “vicious” opponent.... (full context)

...clothes regain color. She begins recording Manny and Bel on her phone again. Manny, noticing tendrils are growing from the pavement but not around the memorial rock, tugs Bel toward it.... (full context)

Manny sees that the tendrils are growing long enough to reach him and Bel. Noting that the rock is the... (full context)

Bel throws some of his own money at the tendrils, but it doesn’t have the same effect. Manny takes them from Bel, which increases Manny’s... (full context)

...you, one by one.” Given how this “nosy, racist white woman” has reacted to the tendril’s infection, Manny is terrified of what an infection will do to New York police officers. (full context)

...an elegantly dressed Black woman (Brooklyn) approaching, holding up a phone. Her music drives the tendrils away. Manny realizes she must be another borough. Soon the tendrils have vanished. The elegant... (full context)

...He asks Brooklyn how she found him and knew to play music to fight the tendrils. She asks whether he’s a local. He says no. Manny suspects she doesn’t like him... (full context)

...that the Williamsburg Bridge’s destruction is related. Bel asks Brooklyn whether she really thinks the tendrils and the Woman in White destroyed the Bridge. When Brooklyn asked what woman Bel is... (full context)

...her father (Clyde). Suddenly, they catch sight of a dog, across the street, infected with tendrils. Brooklyn compares the tendrils to a disease. Bel points out that the infection will soon... (full context)

Manny asks Brooklyn, even if she doesn’t want to get involved fighting the tendrils, to help him learn how to embody New York. Suddenly, he has a vision of... (full context)

...is touching some people as they walk by. Aislyn sees one person grow a white tendril where the Woman touched him. She realizes the Woman is behaving strangely by standing nearby... (full context)

...the other boroughs won’t take care of her, the Woman will. She points to a tendril growing from the ferry station—Aislyn, comparing it to a “petal from an exotic flower,” finds... (full context)

...she tells the driver she’s fine—it’s allergies. Riding home on the bus, Aislyn sees another tendril and realizes she can’t remember the Woman’s name, only that it began with R. She... (full context)

...let them learn what that felt like.” Bronca leaves the bathroom. When she’s gone, a tendril hidden behind the toilet writhes. (full context)

...boroughs. Brooklyn says that after her intuition that she could use music to fight the tendrils, she decided it was “too goddamn weird” to be a delusion. Then she mentions Bel... (full context)

...“ordinary”—which means they couldn’t have created the painting themselves. Examining them, she sees a white tendril sticking out of Manbun’s ankle. Though Bronca doesn’t know what it is, she guesses. As... (full context)

...from the pool. As Mrs. Yu enters the backyard, the other boy touches the bottom. Tendrils envelop him. Padmini and Mrs. Yu grab the boy’s hand and try to pull him... (full context)

Padmini, thinking of equations in fluid mechanics, imagines a lubricant between the boy and the tendrils. This trick allows Padmini and Mrs. Yu to pull the boy free. Padmini is overjoyed... (full context)

...smells ocean. He speculates the pool bottom-monster may be the same composite entity as the tendrils, remembering the Woman in White calls herself both “we” and “I”: the “distinction between the... (full context)

Brooklyn asks why the tendrils attacked Padmini’s neighbors instead of Padmini. Manny explains that attacking vulnerable people close to your... (full context)

...brownstone’s backyard. Brooklyn recognizes the “antithesis of presence” they emit from her encounters with the tendrils. She runs out of the first brownstone, hops the gate into the second brownstone’s courtyard,... (full context)

...energy.” The walls clear of strange entities, and the Alt Artistes fall unconscious as the tendrils controlling them are destroyed. (full context)

...family. Aislyn exchanges glances with Kendra—neither of them is sure what’s going on—and spots a tendril on Conall’s neck. When he notices her staring, she retreats to her room. (full context)

...around Conall’s chair. She’s wondering whether the Woman in White can perceive her through Conall’s tendril when he asks her whether she’s ever had sex with a Black man. The question... (full context)

...a city. When he tells her to get in the car, she moves to obey—and tendrils jump from the ground to block her path and attack the car. (full context)

...asks whether she’s okay. As an energy wave from the car destroys most of the tendrils, Aislyn demands the Woman let go of her and realizes the Woman is in a... (full context)

...Manny speculates the battle caused his memory loss and suggests if he hadn’t killed the tendrils on FDR Drive, they would have killed him. Given that damage to the city hurts... (full context)

...work, Aislyn sees a “white pillar” in her yard. She realizes the pillar, like the tendrils, is an alien thing only she can see. Walking to her car—a Ford hybrid Matthew... (full context)

Aislyn gets in the car, looks at a tendril on her rearview, and asks the Woman in White to speak with her. Suddenly, Aislyn... (full context)

The Woman in White tells Aislyn that the tendrils don’t allow her to puppeteer people. Instead, they “encourage preexisting inclinations.” Recalling a nature program... (full context)

...if she screams and Matthew comes to police his property, the Woman may put a tendril in him—and Aislyn’s terrified that a tendril will make Matthew’s violent, controlling behavior even worse.... (full context)

...her shoulder. Aislyn feels a sting and, realizing the Woman has tried to embed a tendril in her, flinches—but no tendril takes root. The Woman sighs. Aislyn refuses to acknowledge either... (full context)

Hong tells them they have no more time—traveling from the airport, he saw the tendrils making “structures” and a strange tower on Staten Island. Veneza summons the others to a... (full context)

...out six Latino teenagers on the street outside, three of whom are infected by the tendrils. She announces she’s going for a walk to see what’s happening. Manny insists on going... (full context)

Veneza indicates to Manny and Bronca the tendril growth is all over the now-empty lot. Bronca, furious, says that the Woman in White... (full context)

...subway car materializes to carry them across the street. Moments after, a giant pillar of tendrils explodes out of the ground, through the Center, into the sky. Bronca wants to save... (full context)

Driving through Spanish Harlem, Bronca sees a Starbucks, almost invisible beneath white tendrils. Suddenly, a face appears out of the tendrils. Shocked, Bronca swerves. Then a second Starbucks... (full context)

...a white pillar growing in the front lawn. When they try to approach the house, tendrils explode from the ground and the pillar. Some tendrils become the Woman in White, flanked... (full context)

...Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall subway stop. Manny expects trouble when he sees police, some infected by tendrils, at the entrance; he hears them talking about a bomb threat. Yet the uninfected ranking... (full context)

Back in the subway station, Manny and Paolo see a train covered in tendrils approaching. Suddenly, a mouth opens in the train’s front. Manny begins to physically transform, his... (full context)

...that a city—not New York, but still, a city—is her friend, more of the Woman’s tendrils grow all over Staten Island. (full context)

On the way, Bronca sees many structures made of tendrils. Veneza tells Bronca the Woman in White is an extradimensional city avatar, trying to bring... (full context)

...subway station, where he gives them his flashlight and the keys. Inside, they find the tendril-infected subway train, destroyed. Paolo appears and asks whether Staten Island has joined them. Brooklyn is... (full context)

The City We Became

N. K. Jemisin

Tendrils Symbol Analysis

Tendrils Quotes in The City We Became

Tendrils Symbol Timeline in The City We Became