Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Whale Rider, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humans and Nature
Maori Identity
Gender and Power
Familial Love
Summary
Analysis
One narrative voice describes a carving of Paikea / Kahutia Te Rangi. Then, another describes the herd of whales from before, which is waiting motionless between the island Hawaiki above and a protective sea trench below. The ancient whale hesitates to lead them on. Seven of the herd’s calves recently died in a tidal wave, and he’s still grieving. He also worries that there might be dangerous radiation in the trench, and he can’t stop reminiscing about learning to travel under his human master in these same waters. He decides that the normal route is no longer safe and leads his herd toward Antarctica instead.
Much like Koro Apirana, the ancient whale faces a serious leadership dilemma and feels that he is not up to the challenge. One of the new dangers his herd faces, radiation, reflects humans’ damaging human impact on the environment and indifference to other beings. It’s also noteworthy that the herd is departing Hawaiki, the Maori homeland, because this means that they will be reenacting the whale’s original journey with Paikea. The ancient whale’s decision to take a new route for the first time foreshadows the new ground that the people of Whangara will have to break in order to keep their community alive, too. Lastly, Ihimaera’s decision to portray Hawaiki as a real place is significant. He again brings element of Maori creation stories into the present day to show that what mainstream society views as fictional myth is, to the Maori people, simply their history. (Readers might ask why we don’t do the same for events like Captain Cook’s voyages.)
Themes
