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
Kahu—who is now also the whale rider, Kahutia Te Rangi, or Paikea—rides the ancient whale to the open ocean. With the herd following, they go faster and faster, diving and coming to the surface, until they escape the storm. While underwater, the whale creates a pocket of oxygen so that Kahu can breathe. After three deeper and deeper dives, Kahu accepts that the next dive will last forever, and she says farewell to the world, her family, and her people. She affirms that she’s not afraid to die, and the whale dives again. Back on the beach, everyone is crying. Koro Apirana asks which of the boys is riding the whale, and Nanny Flowers cries out that it’s not a boy—it’s Kahu. Koro Apirana finally understands, and he holds his arms up to the sky.
Kahu reenacts the story of her ancestor and namesake Kahutia Te Rangi, although she travels in the opposite direction, setting out from Whangara and heading toward the Maori homeland of Hawaiki. (Metaphorically, this also represents a voyage from the present to the past.) But Ihimaera makes several important stylistic choices that raise important questions about the relationships between place and identity, tradition and the present, and humans, animals, and the divine. For instance, he leaves open the question of whether Kahu truly becomes Paikea, and he raises the question of whether she can truly save her by sacrificing herself. This is a problem if her destiny is to lead her people as chief.
Themes
