Identity
Throughout the novel, the main protagonist, a young lady by the stage name of Two Feathers (real name, Nancy) struggles to come to terms with who she is. Though she loves and embraces her Native American ancestry, she feels as though she is exploited by it to stage her performances as part of her career. Nonetheless she cannot relate to her White ancestry and feels more attuned with her Cherokee roots, leaving her at conflict with who she feels she is as a person.
Death
Death takes on many mediums throughout this book, but most prominently through physical decease. As the novel runs its course, we see many animals of the amusement park begin to fall ill and die. It seems that the loss of life is a allusion to the social issues happening at the time, with the presence of Jim Crow laws occurring in the background of the novel.
Racism
The book highlights many of the racial inequalities and injustices people of color faced throughout American history. Most predominantly, this comes in the form of Hank, a light skinned black man who is not exempt from the racial biases and discrimination due to his lighten tone. Indeed, Hank often tries to form his own justice than to put faith in a system that inherently disadvantages him.
