na viro last third

 Mel Raymond 

Dr. Elllis

EN 376 Post Colonial Literature

18 September 2023

Sisterhood is a driving force throughout the novel but it is especially notable how sisterhood is so embedded into Tia. The reason Tia had decided to overcome her fear of deep space and leave her home island was because of Leilani and while she is in space she has to remind her mother that she came to save her sister, not to appease her. When she finds Leilani alive and unharmed she is flooded with relief  “Tia wrapped her arms around Leilani and laughed. Tears rolled down her cheeks.‘You’re ok. I’m here’ She wouldn’t release her sister… She released Leilani for a mmooment. Leilani slumped and Tia gathered her into another bear hug and sobbed” (Cole 239).  Even after this bittersweet moment and Tia discovers that Leilani had been working behind her back for many years she remains aligned with her  over Dani, because although she was part of the Academy’s harvest mission she hadn’t harmed or abused anyone to the scale Dani had. As she reflects on her family she realizes how this secret has impacted her foundation “Leilani was the most dependable person in Tia’s life, apart from Bubu Keleni. But now she bagan to doubt everything”(254). Even after this Tia still decides that her sister has the best interest of the mission at heart rather than her mother and she is proven right by this decision through the end of the novel. Where Dani relentlessly tries to harm the crew and her own family to aide her mission towards greed. Culturally family is deeply significant for Tia but Dani never proves herself to be a worthy parental figure, this ultimately forces her daughters to be left with a deep wariness that proves right. Whereas Leilani although withholds information from her sister never acts with intentional malice, rather she operates under the mission framework they had been taught since childhood to obey.


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