The Whale Rider

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1987

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

The Whale Rider

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Themes

Man’s Relationship with Nature

An overall story arc in The Whale Rider is the restoration of oneness between man and beast. At the beginning of time, God, man, and animals lived in communion together on Hawaiki. Once whales were granted dominion over the ocean, they served as guides to men lost at sea. Likewise, certain blessed individuals possessed the necessary skills to communicate with whales. Rawiri tells this tale,

From the very beginning the whale was grateful for this release and this was why the whale family, the Wehenga-kauiki, became known as the helpers of men lost at sea. Whenever asked, the whale would attend the call, as long as the mariner possessed the necessary authority and knew the way of talking to whales (25).

Kahutia Te Rangi is one of the blessed men who could speak with whales. He initially does this by mirroring the emotions of the ancient bull whale in his flute playing. The Maori ancestor is tasked with making the barren land of a nearby island fruitful. On his voyage to the new island, he brings with him “life-giving forces which would enable us to live in close communion with the world” (20). These forces came in the form of spears equipped with instructions on how man and beast may live in a “helpful partnership” (20). Yet, man soon becomes derailed by greed in the age of commercialism and begins to fish for more than is needed and outside of his respective God’s territory. With this betrayal, man loses his ability to communicate with whales, and therefore, oneness is destroyed.

The lasting effects of this destruction are most notably seen in the ancient bull whale’s depression and yearning for death. The whale laments the loss of his rider, a relationship that depicts on a smaller scale the ultimate destruction of oneness between all men and all beats. Everywhere he travels on his migration, he is haunted by images and memories of his rider, or rather, of the oneness that was shared. The whale cannot survive without its rider because doing so means living without a part of himself. Both men and whales need the other for survival, and the reader sees this in Koro Apirana’s words, “Our ancestry wants to die. […] There is no place for it here in this world. The people who once commanded it are no longer here. When it dies, we die. I die” (65-66). In forcing domination over the whales, man has killed its very source of life. Men and animals rely on one another, and this is also seen in the sea’s anticipation to be discovered by man. The sea rejoices, “We have been found. The news is being taken back to the place of the Ancients. Our blessing will come soon” (8). It is only in restoring oneness that life can gain meaning once more.

The reciprocal relationship lives on in the present through nature’s sharing in man’s emotions. There are numerous instances where words are caught in the wind or the sea thunders in anticipation of Kahu. For example, when Kahu needs to let the ancient bull whale know she is approaching, “The wind snatched at her words and flung them with the foam to smash in the wind” (67). Likewise, when Koro Apirana shouts in anguish at the whale’s mass grave, “The seagulls caught his words within their claws and screamed and echoed the syllables overhead” (60). These instances give hope that the oneness still exists, and it has just become muted through centuries of abuse by man.

The Inclusion of Women

Nanny Flowers routinely critiques Koro Apirana’s exclusion of women from sacred Maori affairs. Koro Apirana believes that since Maori affairs are sacred, only sacred people can tend to them. In only allowing men to overlook these matters, he asserts that men are sacred and women are not. Nanny Flowers understands this dichotomy, which she sees as ignorant and ultimately unnecessary due to her ancestry. Koro Apirana blames his wife’s feminine genes for being too powerful when Porourangi has two girls and no boys. Her ancestor, Muriwai, constantly challenges the male/female binary by freely moving between the two genders in her actions. She acts like a man when she saves her brothers from an incoming tidal wave. Mihi, Nanny Flowers’ cousin, also has a disregard for men retaining authority only because they are men, as is evidenced in her lifting her skirt to remind the men where they come from. Nanny Flowers also possesses this stubbornness, asserting her authority over her husband whenever possible. She defies his objection to naming Porourangi’s daughter Kahua and buries her birth cord under Kahutia Te Rangi’s statue without telling Koro Apirana. Nanny Flowers says herself, “He isn’t any chief. I’m his chief” (13). The authority of men is questioned and exposed as superficial and incomplete without the female counterpart. This relationship alludes to another binary that must be transcended if oneness is to be restored.

Nanny Flowers holds on to hope that Koro Apirana will change his ways, and she believes that Kahu will be the one to help him do so. After burying the birth cord, Nanny Flowers sees a light come on in her husband’s room and whispers, “Never mind, Kahu. You’ll show him when you grow up. You’ll fix the old Paka” (17). The psychological effects of Koro Apirana’s treatment of Kahu are showcased in her conversations with Rawiri when she asks what it is like to be a boy and wishes she had been born one. When Koro Apirana fails to attend her break-out ceremony, she rationalizes his absence in her mind, saying that it is not his fault she was born a girl. Yet, Koro Apirana is not “fixed” until the end of the novel, as he consumes himself in finding a male heir to the tribe. As the whales begin to strand themselves, Nanny Flowers reminds Koro Apirana that the women are not afraid to act the men (61). Kahu eventually “acts the man” when she mounts the ancient bull whale and reveals herself to be able to ride whales, a traditionally male ability. After seeing Kahu’s interaction with the whale and her emergence as the final spear, Koro Apirana does shed his ignorance by the end of the novel, apologizing for not noticing Kahu.

A Return to One’s Roots

This theme is most explicitly seen in Rawiri’s return home from Papua New Guinea. He leaves his family behind and travels the world. While Ihimaera believes that gaining new experiences is positive, there ultimately comes a time when home begins to call one back. While away, Rawiri thinks, “Sometimes, when you yourself are living life to the full, you forget that life elsewhere also continues to change like a chameleon.” (38). He begins to miss the connection with his family and Maori culture. His relationship with nature is seen when a shell whispers to him that it is time to return home. While at a lagoon with Jeff, Rawiri recounts, “I had picked up a shining silver shell from the reef. I had taken it back to the beach and was listening to the sea whispering to me from the shell’s silver whorls” (39-40). He hears the call of his home and realizes that it is time to return. After this instance, three events occur that confirm the shell’s whispers: Clara’s treatment of him at the wedding reception, Jeff’s family’s treatment of a native that they hit with their car, and the cloud shaped like a whale with a swirling moko on its forehead. Nature seems to communicate with Rawiri, alerting him both to the danger in Papua New Guinea if he stays and the eventual stranding of the whales on the beach.

Kahu also signifies a kind of return, specifically the return of the final spear. As such, she is the one that will save humanity from its ignorance and restore the oneness they once had with nature. She is often depicted with spear images flashing around her, representing the grounding of the spear Kahutia Te Rangi threw into the atmosphere centuries ago. When Kahu is swimming out to the ancient bull whale, Rawiri thinks, “The water was freezing, but not to worry. The waves were huge, but she could do this. The rain was like spears, but she could do this” (67). Equating Kahu with spear imagery posits her as the return of oneness and harmony, as this is what Kahutia Te Rangi said the final spear would accomplish. When Kahu is taken out to sea by the ancient bull whale, the old mother whale asserts that she must be returned home. She will not complete her task as the final spear if she stays at sea. Kahu is not meant to be taken from the island and comes to signify the most significant return of the entire novel, the return of the final spear and therefore oneness.