43 pages • 1 hour read
Aimee NezhukumatathilWorld of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Homing Capabilities
Several animals in World of Wonders have unique navigational techniques. The narwhal’s long tooth gives it “some of the most directed echolocation of any animal” (36). Red-spotted newts have “excellent homing capabilities” (141), and monarch butterflies migrate based on memory and instinct. Chico the grey cockatiel also returns to Nezhukumatathil’s parents’ home after escaping. Nezhukumatathil includes these animals and their behaviors as metaphors with which she understands her own methods of navigating life and her search for a home. Like the butterflies flying around a nonexistent mountain, Nezhukumatathil can’t explain exactly what sparks her curiosity or what draws her to a particular place; it is physical and instinctive. Because she grew up moving from home to home, she feels a kinship with animals that travel long distances, searching for a suitable habitat.
Camouflage
While bird watching, one of Nezhukumatathil’s sons tells her “don’t worry, Mommy, you can hide in the forest from those bad people. You have good camouflage” (129). Here, her mixed-race son equates darker skin with camouflage; he has only a vague awareness of racial difference. Elsewhere in World of Wonders, Nezhukumatathil equates camouflage with her efforts to blend in with white peers. As a young girl in Kansas, she hides behind catalpa leaves to avoid the stares of her classmates. Axolotls have a limited camouflage ability, and Nezhukumatathil uses the axolotl’s “salamander smile” to avoid confrontation in school. We can therefore understand the inclusion of various animals’ camouflage techniques in the first half of World of Wonders as symbols for Nezhukumatathil’s feelings of vulnerability and desire to blend in with white children.
Bright Colors
Bright colors abound in World of Wonders. They represent joy, wonder, excitement, diversity, and Nezhukumatathil herself. In “Superb Bird of Paradise,” the shock of color in a bird’s feathers reminds Nezhukumatathil of the colorful saris and tagalogs worn at her wedding. These colorful garments in turn represent the diverse array of people present at Nezhukumatathil’s wedding and in the music video for “Macarena.” We can understand Nezhukumatathil’s expression of colorful biodiversity throughout World of Wonders as a model for the America she wants to live in, where cultural and racial diversity are celebrated and allowed to flourish.
Her journey of self-acceptance as represented in colors is encapsulated in the chapter “Peacock.” After being humiliated in class for her love of bright and colorful peacocks, she reacts by turning in a bland drawing of a bald eagle and renouncing peacocks to her father. By the end, however, she has come to terms with herself and repeats the mantra “My favorite color is peacock blue. My favorite color is peacock blue” (19). The peacock is proud and colorful and, notably, the national bird of India. Nezhukumatathil also attributes her love of bright colors to her grandmother’s gift of glass bracelets at a young age. Nezhukumatathil’s South Asian heritage is therefore inseparable from her enthusiasm for color.
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By Aimee Nezhukumatathil
