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The Tower is the nickname for a building overlooking Manny’s junkyard, “a five-story concrete monstrosity on a block otherwise full of brownstones” (2). The community assumes the Tower was intended to be a new complex or apartment building that has since been left “abandoned and unfinished” by the developers (2). As such, the Tower becomes a symbol of gentrification, the encroachment of change in the neighborhood intended to drive out the community currently living there in the name of progress. Later in the novel, Sierra learns Wick has been hiding out in the building, using it to watch her and the other shadowshapers and infiltrate their community. As a white man who has tried to steal shadowshaping powers from a community predominantly filled with people of color, Wick in himself represents cultural appropriation. His choice to hide out in the Tower contributes to the idea of the Tower as a symbol of gentrification.
Manny commissions Sierra to paint a mural on the side of the Tower, and she chooses to paint a huge dragon. Unaware of her shadowshaping powers when she begins the mural, Sierra nonetheless decides to make the creature “fierce” and watches eagerly as it “come[s] to life a fraction more with each new detail” (2). As Sierra learns more and more about her abilities, she continues working on her dragon, and in her final showdown against Wick, Sierra awakens the dragon “as if […] from a thousand-year sleep” (283). Dragons are known as a staple of fantasy fiction, so including one in this novel indicates a nod to the conventions of the genre. The dragon also represents Sierra’s own journey of coming to power. Sierra has been kept in the dark for most of her life about her shadowshaping powers, almost as if she has been in a deep sleep. Once awoken, however, Sierra—like the dragon—proves to be a formidable force with the power to stop Wick and protect her family.
Sierra’s grandfather doesn’t consider her skilled or valuable because of her gender. This “machismo,” or emphasis on masculinity seems to be a part of Sierra’s ethnic background until she learns that spiritual warriors—the Lucera—only descend through the women in her family. Thus, the Lucera role represents feminine power that’s at odds with traditional female roles. Sierra is able to rise above gender expectations and become the heroine she’s meant to be, not in opposition to her heritage, but because of it.