Content Warning: This section discusses childhood sexual assault and abuse, colonialism, suicide, and substance abuse.

Split Tooth is largely a story about trauma. The narrator responds to these traumas in varying ways, but the strategies that enable her to survive in the moment sometimes come back to haunt her. Ultimately, this is because the framing of trauma as personal is itself an artifact of colonialism—an insistence on individualism that erases the systemic roots of suffering and stands in the way of healing.  

The narrator experiences repeated sexual abuse and assault beginning in early childhood. She does not have a safe space to retreat to and has nobody to talk to about her experiences. To survive the abuse, the narrator dissociates, separating herself from her body and retreating from whatever she is experiencing. Sometimes she disconnects from reality by using drugs that give her a temporary escape, though she knows how dangerous substance abuse can be. These strategies help the narrator survive her experiences, but they also damage her. When she gets pregnant and turns her attention to her twin babies, she experiences a more meaningful kind of healing and recognizes her own power.

However, though the narrator loves her children, she also finds that they have inherited her trauma.