Gun Violence not an Intended Theme

There's no denying, Somewhere Beyond Manhattan is rife with vivid descriptions of the arsenal that Prestupnik and his mob carry with them on their way to infiltrate and attempt to conquer Mannahatta. In the face of the current problem on school campuses throughout the country, and with thousands of students rightfully descending on Washington to protest, I would be remiss not to address this aspect considering the timing of the book's release. Yet for every argument that the story's very premise promotes gun violence, one can be made that the symbolism within discourages it.

Rather than defend the guns' purpose as a necessary component, or that it's just an element of the antagonist's character, I would argue that the novel demonstrates through symbolism the lessons of why one shouldn't resort to using them. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Munson's refusal to give Myles a weapon when he asks him for one. Munson is, in many ways, young Myles' metaphorical father, representing the son he never had and the father Myles never knew. As such, he denies Myles the chance to enter the battle, telling him he prefers him by his side. In Myles' wrestle with Monti in the snow, he struggles to keep the Makarov away from himself, not to attempt to gain the weapon for himself. And, while throughout history many Native Americans did defend themselves with rifles and other weapons they were introduced to by white men, in the book, not one Lenape picks up a gun with which to defend himself. Instead, the warriors rely on implements like bows and arrows, fashioned from the land of their fathers, the very land they are defending against such weapons of mass destruction. Another example can be found when the "band of five" mob members were, in a sense, crushed inside the tunnel by the weight and size of their own weapons cache, which they were forced to leave behind because they were too massive to haul. It was the sack filled with the guns themselves that ultimately clogged their retreat and sealed their fate. This can be seen to signify it is what the guns themselves represent that caused their demise, whether they were used or not.

While, as the author, I don't feel the need to defend the use of the weapons used throughout the book, or take a political stand in favor of, or opposed to guns, it's my hope that readers and critics alike will identify the truly important themes inherent throughout the book: about a people who have been ignored and unrecognized by society for hundreds of years, until a 17 year old boy yearning for a father finally discovers them.