The Bingo Palace | Themes

The Bingo Palace Themes

Indian vs. Non-Indian

The lack of understanding highlighted in this novel is mostly between whites and Indians. In this chapter, the guard or officer at the border stops them for some reason and decides to examine the car. Upon his examination, the officer finds a seed, a fruitcake wrapped in foil and Lipsha's family heirloom. It is a pipe, and the guard associates the pipe, the cake and the seed with marijuana. In turn, he inspects the pipe, not knowing or caring about its importance. "...always, he would think back to that action, which seemed to happen slowly and to last for timeless moments. It seemed, on thinking back, that there, in the little border station, in the hands of the first non-Indian who ever attached that pipe together, sky would crash to earth." (p. 35)

The second encounter displaying the tension and misunderstanding between Indian and non-Indian people is Lipsha's argument with...
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