Family

Alexander suggests that family can exist between anyone when Blade repeatedly makes powerful human connections with people not biologically related to him. Sia becomes family for both Blade and Rutherford soon after they each arrive in Konko. Though Blade and Sia live in different continents and speak different languages, their uncomplicated love for one another unites them across these divides. The only traits required for Blade and Sia to develop a familial connection are playfulness and helpfulness. Blade affirms that Sia is as much a member of his family as Sunny when he sings “Solo” after she dies of malaria. While Blade dedicates one line of his song to Sunny, he sings another in honor of Sia: “A Sunny life fading to gray…You smiled in hard times and danced in the rain” (454–455). Blade clearly references his adoptive mother in the first line by capitalizing the...