White Oleander

White Oleander is a young adult novel that illuminates societal issues in various facets of American life, including the broken foster system and the corrupt legal system. Although its target audience is those of a high school to college level, it is relevant for anyone looking to better understand these issues from a narrated perspective. The events described within it are fictional but could easily be an account of real-life abuses and injustices.

The protagonist of White Oleander, Astrid Magnussen, is an innocent victim of horrific trauma and is exposed to many experiences that someone her age should not, including statutory rape, drug use, attempted murder, and physical abuse. All the while, she is shifted from foster home to foster home, and her mental health is never attended to. As a result, she continually spirals into more and more destructive habits. This is a common phenomenon for neglected children, particularly those in foster care; 19.2% of foster youth in the United States have some substance use disorder (“Prevalence of Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Across Five Sectors of Care,” Aarons et al., 2001), and with society’s tendency to overlook foster children, they are less likely than average youth to receive support for it. Astrid hints at this problem when she and Yvonne are in the hospital giving birth to Yvonne’s baby; Yvonne is in severe pain and begging for an epidural, but the nurse declines her, and Astrid is certain it is because she looks down on them for being foster children. From the time she is separated from her mother, Astrid is left to fend for herself. To make matters worse, the people hired to care for her are often abusive or suffer from untreated mental health issues. One woman, who starves the girls she houses, is overheard telling her friend, “You should take in girls. […] It’s easy money” (200). This conversation is a slight at how paying people to parent can often lead to the wrong hands gaining foster guardianship over children. Astrid, and many other children like her, are treated like commodities rather than people. While navigating the foster system virtually alone, Astrid’s story delves into themes of The Meaning of Home and The Capacity for Human Suffering.

White Oleander also deals with the corruption of the legal system. Within the story, characters who commit heinous crimes are never punished, and others who do are eventually set free by stealthy lawyers. During her time in foster care, Astrid is physically and sexually abused by multiple people, and none are ever punished for it. Issues of right and wrong are explored and tested, and at times, Astrid is not even removed from the home and is forced to continue to remain in an abusive household, along with many other children. Astrid’s mother, Ingrid, murders a man for breaking up with her. She spends nine years in prison but is eventually set free with the help of a lawyer. These plot points can be seen as attacks on the justice system and whether it can even be called a justice system at all.