We Need New Names

The narrator talks about how people leave the land in droves for distant places: “Those with hopes are crossing borders. Those with loss are crossing borders. Those in pain are crossing borders” (147). People are leaving for a variety of reasons, but the significant thing is that they are fleeing. The narrator says that “when things fall apart, the children of the land scurry and scatter like birds escaping a burning sky” (147). These people will never be the same again, either, because they can’t leave behind their trauma. They also know that they won’t be entirely welcomed in new lands, and that many people will think of them as usurpers, or baggage.

Darling is now in Detroit, and through her descriptions, it’s apparent that she’s suffering from culture shock. When she looks out the window, everything is covered by deep snow and looks foreign. She thinks about the difference and says, “[S]ome things happen only in my country, and this here is not my country; I don’t know whose it is” (149). Darling thinks that the snow is evil and greedy, for what else can cover everything so completely? The reader is introduced to