110 pages • 3 hours read
Varian JohnsonThe Parker Inheritance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Balance Between Justice and Forgiveness
When any person or community is faced with oppression, it can be difficult to figure out how to seek justice without also seeking revenge. Throughout The Parker Inheritance, this search to balance justice and forgiveness is highlighted as a key theme through the perspectives of multiple characters as they try to navigate difficult situations and histories.
This idea is introduced early on in a key document: the letter. In it, James Parker describes his motivation for setting up the inheritance: Siobhan’s belief “in the balance of justice and forgiveness” (30). The entire novel rests on this letter and on Parker’s insistence that Lambert’s terrible history be revealed as part of the inheritance itself. This way, Parker feels he can “honor Siobhan’s family, force the city to face its dark past, and acknowledge what had happened so long ago” (294). As a result, the conclusion of the novel illustrates one path toward balance, where some justice is found through Candice and Brandon’s publicity around the history of the inheritance and forgiveness if found through the funding of new programs for the city. A larger lesson comes from Siobhan’s challenging of James Parker to search for more than revenge—it becomes clear that the message of The Parker Inheritance is that revenge alone cannot earn justice; forgiveness is also necessary.
Candice also struggles with her own, slightly less significant, version of this idea. As she embarks on a journey to clear her grandmother’s name, she repeatedly thinks about how she could get justice for her grandmother. When Candice gets close enough to believing that she might solve the mystery, she feels excited because “then everyone would have to take back every mean thing they’d said about her grandmother” (175). Though Candice often desires this justice for her grandmother, she also goes through a transformative process, not unlike James Parker, so that she is finds room to forgive those who came before her for their actions. Varian Johnson seems to be arguing that both justice and forgiveness are necessary for an individual or community to truly heal and move forward from oppression that has taken place.
The Path Forward Is Not Always Visible
Perhaps the sentence most repeated in the novel is, “Just because you don’t see the path doesn’t mean it’s not there” (28). Introduced as a favorite piece of advice from Candice’s grandmother, the phrase is later stated by Siobhan’s mother and by Siobhan herself, revealing a long-standing legacy beyond Candice’s existence. The meaning of this statement remains thematically relevant throughout The Parker Inheritance, and it appears or is referenced at almost every critical turn in the plot.
One of the core meanings of this statement is that it is not always possible to find or see the path forward, especially when a person hasn’t shifted their perspective. Candice must frequently change the way she thinks about something to solve a clue; later in the novel, she realizes, “We hear what we want to hear. We see what we want to see” (265). Through this revelation, Candice displays the heart of the statement her grandmother had repeated to her so often: it is impossible to find the path forward if a person is only seeing what they “want to see.”
Chronologically, the earliest appearance of the phrase is in 1957, as Leanne Washington cautions her husband not to make a rash decision, reminding him that “progress takes time” (135). Leanne, who is facing explicit institutional oppression, including segregation, has worked tirelessly to oppose racism and to fight for justice. By framing this as the originating statement of the phrase, Varian Johnson suggests that the cultural inheritance of a country marred by explicit and implicit racism will take generations of shifting perspectives to heal. Candice’s fight to solve the inheritance, through which she must continually re-find the path, is also part of a fight for justice for Lambert’s Black residents.
Racism Is a Catalyst for Conflict
Racism is the catalyst for nearly all the conflict in The Parker Inheritance. For young Candice and Brandon, learning about racism occurs both through their own experience as well as through their investigation of Lambert’s history. What Candice and Brandon find is supported by chapters describing the lives of the residents of 1957 Lambert. For example, Enoch Washington learns quickly from his family that as “a colored man in the South… You don’t have to go searching for a fight” (63). Similarly, as a teenager, Reggie is told that “confidence is a very dangerous thing for a Negro boy to have ‘round here” (168). The effects of living in a racist society causes lifelong consequences for both Enoch and Reggie, as well as their families. In addition, Reggie’s negative feelings about how he was treated as a young person leads to many of his decisions as a white-passing adult, including his search for revenge on the Allen family.
As Candice and Brandon make their discoveries about the terrors of the past, they also experience their own examples of racism in the present day, including with an assistant principal at Perkins High School. After the incident, Candice thinks about it, feeling clear that “[it] wasn’t a misunderstanding. She knew that. So did Brandon” (132). The more Candice understands the society around her, the more she investigates the Parker inheritance with renewed energy and motivation. Though Candice and Brandon are able to approach the racism around them with more nuance than Reggie or Enoch, this is in part due to the support of the adults around them, who help guide them towards productive ways to address racism and move towards justice.
Hiding to Fit In
An important aspect of the novel is the ways that different characters feel the need to hide a significant part of their identity from the people around them. The most extreme examples of this are Reggie Bradley and Coach Douglas, both of whom choose to be a white person for the majority of their adult lives, despite being born Black. In smaller ways, Candice and Brandon both hide pieces of their identities from each other and from other people. Finally, Candice’s father hides that he is gay from her until close to the end of the novel. When Candice reflects on why people might hide part of their identities, she thinks that it might be “just easier that way” (79). Similarly, Brandon wonders whether “James or Reggie or whoever he was… liked being someone else” (236). In these musings, Candice and Brandon struggle to figure out the tension of a person hiding part of their identity for safety. Though it might be “easier,” it also requires the person having to deny the parts of their identity, history, and culture.
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