Themes and messages

Prejudice

One of the main themes of the short story “Hemi’s Gift” by TJ Corrigan is prejudice. 

The narrator’s Māori descent becomes apparent when she mentions her father will get a “tangi ” (l.6), and when she tries to distance herself from the Māori man on board the bus and show the other passengers that she is not related to or associated with him despite their look and skin color.

The most obvious instance of prejudice and racism is when the narrator notices a non-Māori couple on the bus looking back at Hemi because of the noise he is making. The couple instantly perceives the narrator, who is sitting behind Hemi, as a similar sort of loud and bothersome character because they are both Māori and that sort of behavior is “typical” (l. 24) of Māori people. This instance of prejudice and racism is perhaps the most easily noticeable because the characters are prejudiced against a different cultural group to whic...