Summary
A video proliferates online of two dark men meeting each other in town, not far from where Anders fled. When one ducks, the other shoots him “casually,” killing him. The man filming from inside his home says, “Oh shit, oh shit,” in an almost excited tone. Anders watches the video over and over, not leaving his father’s house. He cannot help but wonder if he knows one of the men. He feels a sibling-like kinship, though Anders has never had a sibling.
The video becomes the center of an “online brawl” in which people argue over its meaning and what exactly happened. Oona sees it too. She forgets it more easily, more preoccupied with how many people are changing now; seemingly half her online contacts have changed. There is less violence on the streets. Oona watches videos of people she knows venturing out for drives during the daytime and feels the desire to go out herself. But not yet.
Anders isn’t sure if he can trust his neighbors, even though many of them have changed by now as well. He stays inside with the bright sun glinting off the snow. Eventually Oona comes over, despite him telling her not to. She says it is getting better and the militants won’t bother her. He is relieved when she is there. He has run out of weed and she has some still, but he will not risk sneaking outside to smoke it; Anders never smokes weed in front of his tobacco-smoking father. Anders catches his father looking away while Anders kisses Oona. He is not sure if he is imagining his father’s discomfort at seeing a white girl with a dark man, even if that dark man is him.
Oona’s mother notices all the dark faces appearing on her street. They are not bold enough to wander around, but rather play briefly on their snow-dusted lawns or step out early to shovel their walks. Oona’s mother’s favorite channel goes off the air for a while. When it comes back, there are dark hosts mixed in with the white hosts. She can no longer listen to a favorite radio personality whose color has changed—it seems his brain has changed too. Online the conversation has shifted to finding a cure, but with every new story of a miracle concoction or drug comes reports of people getting seriously ill or dying when they try to take it. She loses hope and, like a tiny child, needs to be comforted by her daughter.
Anders’s father leaves his room less and less often. The smell of death emanates from it. The pain is excruciating. After weeks of hiding inside, Anders ventures out to meet with “a hospice employee known for his shady dealings” who sounds white over the phone but is dark. The man gives Anders instructions and a brown paper bag in exchange for cash. On the way home, Anders notices all the dark faces on the street. The town has changed. Most street lights work normally, stores have reopened, and there is an ambulance going from place to place without a siren, just driving. He gives his father the medication and then goes from room to room, opening the curtains wide.
Reluctant to go out at night but eager to escape the house, Anders accepts an invitation to visit Oona at home. They kiss passionately when he arrives; Oona assures him her mother is asleep. They have sex in her childhood bed, focused only on the act until it is over. They see Oona’s mother standing in the hall, having opened the door. The old woman moves away and vomits. Oona is both reassuring and scolding toward her mother. Anders leaves.
When Oona changes, she has been expecting it and so isn’t very shocked. She sees herself in the mirror and feels a sadness at having lost the person tied to her memories. Then she realizes there is no reason for her to lose the memories she wishes to keep of her father and brother. Her melancholy is weaker than the lightness she feels at having shed a former skin. She has escaped and grown.
Oona’s mother says nothing in the morning when she sees her daughter has changed. Oona apologizes, then they have breakfast together. The breakfast is tasty, but as she eats, Oona’s mother can’t bear it and leaves the table. She goes upstairs and spits in the sink, telling herself “you can do this.” She goes to her room and closes the door.
Oona goes to Anders’s father’s house. Anders remarks on her changed appearance. Oona apologizes for her mother’s behavior the other night, but once inside she realizes he is focused only on his dying father. Oona holds Anders’s hand, and Anders holds the hand of his father, the three linked in a chain.
Most people in town have changed. There are only a few pale people who wander like ghosts. Most of the businesses have reopened, the damage and burn marks tidied up. Anders goes to his boss at the gym and finds he is very dark. Anders says he needs a bit of time before returning to work because of his father. His boss says he is sorry for them both and wishes them good luck. Both Anders and Oona look at people now and wonder whether they have always been dark or if they are still adjusting to the change. Oona finds she can’t read people as well as she used to; it is tiring to not know whether someone is “nice or friendly or dangerous.”
Analysis
With the narrator’s commentary on the viral video of one man shooting another dead, Hamid reintroduces the themes of societal collapse and mortality. Anders cannot help but watch the video repeatedly, feeling a sense of recognition in regard to the dead man as he contemplates what feels like his own impending death. The excitement in the voice of the person who films the video also suggests a voyeuristic pleasure from witnessing the violence. Anders does not share this perverse pleasure, identifying more with the victim of the crime than the spectator.
The theme of white privilege returns with the lessening of tensions in the town. For Oona, who is still white, the lockdown period hasn’t been the life-or-death experience it is for Anders. Because of this, she is emboldened to leave her house earlier than Anders feels comfortable leaving his. However, soon there are dark faces appearing on the streets, suggestive of a new period of peace.
As a symbol of the racial recalibration occurring within Anders’s and Oona’s society, Oona’s mother’s right-wing news channel begins to feature dark hosts, who work alongside their white hosts. The formerly white supremacist radio host she likes becomes intolerable when his racial transformation brings about a new perspective on race. Having turned brown himself, the man has a new understanding of the superficiality of racial differences, and he loses the desire to peddle racist rhetoric. To Oona’s mother, it seems that his mind has changed along with his skin color.
Hamid further develops the theme of mortality with the narrator’s commentary on Anders’s father’s worsening condition. Although society is returning to normal, Anders’s father—representative of the old society—is losing strength and the will to live. To facilitate his father’s passing and alleviate his terrible pain, Anders buys an unspecified medication from a hospice worker. Administering the end-of-life medication brings about an ironic sense of optimism in Anders; in a symbolic gesture, he feels impelled to open the curtains in the house and embrace the new era being ushered in.
Emboldened by what he perceives as positive changes in society, Anders risks going out to visit Oona at night. However, the theme of racial prejudice arises when Oona’s mother becomes physically ill at the sight of her daughter making love to a dark man. However, Oona herself changes color soon after. Having predicted it as inevitable, Oona’s mother does her best to accept her changed daughter, willing herself to expand her consciousness and see past the racial prejudice that has been a core component of her identity for so long.
