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
When Kahu returns to Whangara the next summer, Koro Apirana isn’t nasty to her anymore—he’s just indifferent. He has found some distant relatives who might be able to serve as chief, and he hopes that Porourangi could still have a son with Ana, his new girlfriend. Meanwhile, Kahu starts going everywhere with Rawiri—including to shear sheep, which is his summer job. Nanny Flowers gets mad at him over this (and almost everything else). She also keeps criticizing Koro Apirana for excluding women from his classes, which Kahu keeps spying in on from the doorway.
Koro Apirana cares far more about the chieftainship than his own family, but only because he thinks his community’s survival depends on maintaining a tradition of male leadership. Meanwhile, Nanny Flowers’s exasperated reaction suggests that this isn’t the first time she has voiced her concerns and been ignored. Indeed, she repeatedly grows frustrated with everyone—including Rawiri—in part because of the way she has been shut out of power and influence.
Themes
But Kahu can’t eavesdrop when Koro Apirana takes the school out to sea for a lesson on sustainable fishing traditions and the effects of overfishing. When a whale sounds in the distance, Koro Apirana laments how few of them are left these days. Back in the meetinghouse, he admits that, as a child, he used to go whaling with his uncle. He remembers marveling at the whales’ beauty and might, only to watch them get harpooned, bled out, and cut apart. At this point, Rawiri finds Kahu hiding in the doorway and tells her to leave. But instead, she runs inside, screaming. Koro Apirana yells at her to leave, picks her up, and tosses her out the door.
Koro Apirana uses his dark past in whaling and his change of heart as a metaphor for how the Maori people have followed the lead of white settlers and started exploiting nature instead of living in harmony with it. This harmony doesn’t mean leaving nature alone, but rather using its resources at a sustainable level so that they don’t deteriorate over time. The novel’s whale characters and the story of Paikea the whale rider suggest that Koro Apirana betrayed not just the world, but also himself and his people. And Kahu’s reaction again suggests that whales have some special significance for her—which may be related to her prospects of eventually becoming chief.
Themes
After this incident, Kahu cries all day and night. Nanny Flowers sleeps in her room to try comforting her, but they are both gone in the morning. Rawiri finds Kahu standing on the beach, gazing out at a pod of whales.
Rawiri gets another glimpse into Kahu’s inner life. First, she does truly value Koro Apirana’s approval, even though she pretends not to. Second, the whales seem to heal Kahu’s grief in a way that Nanny Flowers cannot, despite her best efforts. This further shows that Kahu has a special connection with them.
Themes
