Natasha Thretheweys work “The Native Guard” depicts a wide variety of themes throughout the work. Through a nostalgic and conflicted tone Threthewey mainly makes use of the themes the persistence of death and memory. Throughout the work the reader may notice that a single poem falls into a set of themes simultaneously and not solely in one. The poems “Myth”, “What is Evidence” and “After Your Death” relate to these themes and frame the memories, emotion and life of the poet throughout a time of segregation, death and sadness. The poem “What is Evidence” relates to both the theme the persistence of death and memory as it is Tretheweys illustration of her mother’s physical and emotional relationship throughout her marriage to a white man, which
