Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, racism, gender and transgender discrimination, death by suicide, and suicidal ideation.

“They killed themselves. All of them. All at once. We unsealed the jails first.”

The novel’s first four sentences introduce the motif of “we,” “they,” and “us,” and the central theme Black Trauma Versus White Guilt. More so, the “we” indicates that the unnamed omniscient narrator considers themselves a part of the Black community. The short, rapid sentences establish the drama of the event and its consequences. The juxtaposition of the mass suicide with the unsealing of the jails immediately presents a stark reversal of historical oppression: White death coincides with Black liberation, reframing justice in an unsettling and uncompromising way.

“He wondered if this was what Columbus felt: to look upon something already there with nothing to stop you from claiming every mile as yours.”

Charlie complicates the binary event by comparing himself to Christopher Columbus. The reference suggests the Black characters don’t have categorically pure motives. Like the Italian navigator, they’re capable of exploitation and greed. However, unlike Columbus, Charlie’s reclamation is not built on violence or the subjugation of others but rather on the absence of an oppressive force. His reflection exposes the lingering ethical complexities of taking ownership over a world that was never fully his to begin with.