66 pages • 2 hours read
Rajani LaRoccaRed, White, and Whole
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Hinduism
Reha and her parents are Hindu. Their religion is important to them, as it informs their cultural beliefs and practices, and this is reflected in their daily life. For example, instead of “mom,” Reha calls her mother “Amma,” the Tamil word for mother. Reha’s parents speak Tamil and Kannada, two of the many languages spoken in India, though Reha only speaks English. Hinduism is the largest religion in India and the third-largest religion in the world, with approximately 1.35 billion followers worldwide. It is also one of the oldest living religions in the world, dating back to around 2000 BCE, though some people claim that it is even older. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, and the exact number of deities is up for debate. Some major deities include Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, and Saraswati, although many Hindus describe these various deities as aspects of one God. Some adherents to Hinduism are vegetarian, like Reha and her parents, because certain Hindu texts expound upon the virtue of not eating meat. However, not all Hindus are vegetarian, and there is a strong regional component to the various dietary trends in India.
Some Hindu holidays mentioned in Red, White, and Whole include Krishna Jayanti, Ganesha Puja, and Deepavali. Krishna Jayanti is also called Krishna Janmashtami. It celebrates the birth of Krishna, one of the major deities of Hinduism. Ganesha Puja, also called Ganesh Chaturthi, also celebrates the birth of a deity: the elephant-headed god Ganesh. Many Hindu holidays involve a puja, or worship ritual. A puja involves the worship of a specific deity and can also be performed to honor someone after they die. The other holiday mentioned in Red, White, and Whole is Deepavali. Also called Diwali, Deepavali is a five-day holiday that celebrates “the triumph of light over darkness” (103). During Deepavali, people light candles inside and outside, give gifts, pray, and light fireworks. Many of the foods that Reha describes eating at this time are typical of foods eaten in Deepavali celebrations all across India and in Indian diasporas around the world.
Hinduism is an important part of Reha’s identity as an Indian American. Although she sometimes feels like her religion alienates her from her American peers, it is through her culture and religion that she is able to finally reconcile her identity as an Indian with her identity as an American. Both halves of her life come together during the puja held for her mother after she dies of leukemia. Through this ritual, Reha is able to grieve her mother’s passing and solidify her identity as one whole, rather than two halves.
Authorial Context: Rajani LaRocca
Rajani LaRocca was born in Bangalore, a major city in southern India. In Red, White, and Whole, Reha’s family comes from Bangalore, too. LaRocca immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was a baby and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She studied at Harvard Medical School and became a doctor. She currently works as both a primary care physician and a novelist. All of her books, including novels and picture books, are aimed at younger readers. Many discuss aspects of Indian culture or explain medical concepts to children.
Although Red, White, and Whole is not an autobiography, LaRocca did draw extensively from her own experiences when writing it. Because of her background in medicine, the medical information in the book is both extensive and accurate. Some events in the novel clearly draw directly from LaRocca’s own life experiences, for just as Reha decides that she wants to become a doctor, LaRocca was also inspired to pursue medicine when her mother spent several months in the hospital. Unlike Amma, however, LaRocca’s mother was recovering from a car crash during her hospital stay rather than fighting leukemia.
Like Reha, LaRocca felt out of place and caught between two worlds when she was growing up. In her Author’s Note, she describes feeling like a “weekday American” and a “weekend Indian” (238). She connected to her Indian family and heritage through Amar Chitra Kathas, the same comic books in which Reha first learns the story of Savitri. LaRocca wanted Red, White, and Whole to help readers “understand that even when you feel torn apart, you can still be a whole person—not just despite the things you struggle with, but because of them” (239).
Scientific Context: Leukemia
Leukemia is a collective term for several types of blood cancer. All of these cancers start when blood cells, usually white blood cells, replicate abnormally in the bone marrow. When one kind of cell replicates too fast, the other blood cells do not have enough space and cannot carry out the normal functions of blood in the body. People of all ages can get leukemia; some types are more common in children, while other types primarily impact older people. Each year, around 60,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia in the United States. Although leukemia is one of the most common forms of cancer, it is still a rare disease.
In Red, White, and Whole, Reha’s mother is diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Reha’s grandmother also died of an unspecified illness, but it was probably not AML, which does not have a clear hereditary link like some cancers do. The cause of leukemia is not known; the disease likely develops as a result of several different factors. Doctors can treat leukemia with chemotherapy, as is demonstrated through the treatment that Reha’s mother undergoes; the disease can also be treated with bone marrow transplants if there is a matching donor.
Although Reha’s mother ultimately dies of leukemia, the disease is not always fatal. For some people, it goes into remission and never returns, or does not return for many years. In the United States, the current five-year survival rate for AML is 31.7%, which is lower than the survival rates for several other kinds of leukemia. Patients who are young and otherwise healthy have a better chance of surviving long-term.
