The Bone People Study Guide

Isolation is one of the major themes of The Bone People . Kerewin isolates herself from the world in her tower; Simon is isolated from the world by his inability to speak; Joe is isolated by his grief. Characters' motivations are shown to the reader through paragraphs that detail their thoughts, which serve to illustrate how their isolation leads to misunderstanding.

Additionally, violence plays a role as a means of communication and, in their culture, as what Leanne Christine Zainer refers to as "an inevitable part of life." Joe, for instance, considers violence a tool with which to teach Simon. Simon, who knows no different, becomes violent when he is unable to make people understand him.

A further important theme is Hulme's vision of a utopian unity between Maori and Western culture in New Zealand. She does not simply "write back" against Eurocentric hegemony but includes Western culture in her healing vision as well. This is a major difference to writers such as Chinua Achebe, who write almost exclusively from the viewpoint of the colonized and reject Western philosophy. Note how Kerewin, Joe and Simon also function as metaphors/allegories in the context of postcolonial discourse: Joe could be seen as resembling Maori culture, Simon represents European culture and Kerewin represents the culture clash between both (Kerewin is a "hybrid", part-Maori, part Pākehā). In this context, the novel's magical realism makes sense: the characters' illnesses (cancer, suicide attempt, etc.) can be regarded, in a figurative way, as "cultural illnesses" that are overcome in the end of the novel, when Kerewin, Joe and Simon form a sort of "patchwork family".