The True Meaning of Smekday

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.



Much of The True Meaning of Smekday is an allegory about the history of European colonization of the Americas and its lasting repercussions. By casting this conflict through the lens of how a child experiences an extraterrestrial occupation, the novel explores the violence, hypocrisy, and repercussions of colonialism in the material lives of the people who experience it.

There are many parallels between the Boov’s colonization and European colonization of the Americas, particularly about topics like forced relocation, assimilation, and Manifest Destiny. After the Boov use violence to quell human resistance, they broadcast a message with justification for their colonization. One point is that it “is their Grand Destiny to colonize new worlds” (60). This is a reference to a widely held belief in early America called “Manifest Destiny,” in which settlers felt divinely ordained to spread west across the continent. This resulted in death, forced displacement, and relocation of millions of indigenous people. Adam Rex parallels this in the book by colonizing Boov moving into the “pretty, empty houses” of the people who flee or are forced out (60).

The Boov initially say that humans “would integrate peacefully into Boov society” (60), abandoning human identity and tradition for Boov ones. Throughout the United States’s history, this was also done to Indigenous cultures through locations like boarding schools. Indigenous children were seized from their families, punished if they spoke their languages, and forced to assimilate into European Christian practices in these schools. Boov call humans “Noble Savages of Earth” (63). This is a direct parallel to the European colonial trope of the “noble savage,” popularized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in works like Emile: On Education and Confessions. This fantasy romanticized Indigenous people as innocent, brave, royal, and in touch with nature but “uncivilized.” This appealed to Christian settlers due to their belief in the innocence and nobility of the first man in the Christian faith, Adam.

Eventually, Boov decide assimilation is impossible and humans must move to Human Preserves, “gifts of land that will be for humans forever, never to be taken away again” (63). The first Human Preserve is Florida, but the “Boov decided to keep Florida for themselves” when they “discovered oranges” (125). This parallels the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to an event called the Trail of Tears. Between 1778 and 1871 alone, the United States government broke almost 400 treaties it made with Indigenous communities to protect their land and people when it decided it needed the land for goods of expansion. For instance, the 1848 Fort Laramie Treaty was broken when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. The novel’s use of the discovery of oranges points out the arbitrary nature of treaty-breaking, which then has serious consequences for people’s lives.

Though some aspects of Boov’s colonization are absurd, they give Tip perspective on anti-Indigenous racism and displacement in human societies. When a Bureau of Missing Persons worker, Mitch, tells her that Lucy is located on a reservation, he says “it’s mostly white folks living on the reservation now” because “we needed” the land (338). Tip stands up to him about his hypocrisy, saying, “it was a reservation […] It was land we promised to the Native Americans. Forever” (338). Tip understands the irony of people like Mitch complaining about their rightful land being seized unfairly by the whims of the Boov and then turning around and doing the same thing to Indigenous communities. Though the tone of the Boov’s colonizing efforts are often humorous, Rex’s novel ultimately provides perspective on real-world colonization for young readers.