The Break

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual and physical violence, alcoholism, and racism against Indigenous people.

Within the setting of Winnipeg, the Indigenous peoples are faced with discrimination from the white population, and they are subjected to racist ideologies within a colonized landscape. From the first pages, the reader learns that the houses in the Break “were all made cheap and big” for European immigrants to be able to own land and pay taxes (3), but they left in the 1960s when Indigenous people were able to leave reservations and move into the area. The prejudice that the community experiences resides within the setting itself, and the fact that the novel itself is titled The Break highlights its significance to the characters’ sense of identity.

When Phoenix is introduced as a “runaway” from a juvenile detention center, Vermette illustrates the prejudice faced by Indigenous people:

All the white yuppies got out of their fancy houses and into their cars, and glared a little too long at her in her thin army jacket, but didn’t ask her anything or stop. She made lots of turns, just in case someone called the cops, who would, in this neighborhood, come pretty quickly, she’d bet (28).