Prejudice

People who are prejudiced sometimes allow their feelings to affect their interactions with others and the decisions they make. The characters of this novel are no different with some of the prejudices showing deep-rooted, long-term attitudes from both the Indians and the whites involved in the case of Kimi Kanasket's death. The characters demonstrate their lack of trust, their willingness to lump everyone into a stereotypical category, and their lack of empathy.

The attitude surrounding the Stoneridge School's mascot is one of the most obvious examples of the prejudice these characters face. Stoneridge is near the Klickitat Indian reservation, and the school is a mixture of the races. Kimi Kanasket is one of the Indians who attends the school and her father is an elder of the Klickitat tribe. When Buzz Almond responds to the Kanasket home and learns that Kimi did not come home from...