Greg Van Eekhout uses the concepts of “native” and “alien” in several contrasting ways to raise issues of identity and belonging in different contexts. He combines themes of colonialism and nationalism with a science fiction setting. The “aliens” of the title are both inhabitants of another planet, Breva, and foreigners in different countries on Earth, especially Dutch colonists of Indonesia. Similarly, “native” means those who are indigenous to a place, such as Indonesia, and those who come to consider it their home.
An effective thesis statement could correspond to any of those themes, depending on which ones the reader considers primary. The idea that national and planetary identity is primarily culturally constructed, rather than corresponding to any inborn characteristics, is one dominant theme that could provide the basis for a well-supported essay. Both the Dutch-Indonesians who consider themselves Dutch generations after no family member has even been to Holland and the Brevan-Terrans who believe themselves terrestrials centuries after evolving non-human characteristics offer examples on which to develop an essay.
https://books.google.com/books?id=bK02DwAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
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