THEMES

Success

Inherent in the idea of a gold rush lies the notion of success, specifically immediate and overwhelming.  Kendrick’s journey begins when Kendrick achieves total success, but he will find himself questioning what this means, especially when he begins to discover that he has been more of a victim, in many ways, than a beneficiary of his father’s success.

Family

Throughout the drama, Kendrick struggles to mend the broken relationships between his family members—between his mother and his father, between his sister and his half-brother, and with other family members whose existence he only discovers once he becomes privy to some of his father’s closely-guarded secrets.  The Gold Rush, a family-owned business, is also subject to the shift in values between Nick McNair and his children who, as his health deteriorates, are taking increasing control of the franchise.

Manhood

The world of professional sports is perhaps the last remaining stronghold representing a true man’s world; women have their own teams, but they remain separate from the entrenched “ballers’” culture.   We see Kendrick compete in this world as well as the lessons his sister LaTisha learns as she attempts to infiltrate it and get behind the wall of silence and indifference that surrounds the death of a trophy wife.

Forgiveness

Kendrick begins his journey feeling the need to redeem himself in his father’s eyes: he has never been able to live up to expectations the way his brother Shahid has; in fact, just before his decisive victory in breaking into the professional leagues, he made a mistake that shamed his father and could easily have ruined Kendrick’s life.  As Kendrick seeks Sharif’s forgiveness, his vengeful sister takes a diametrically opposite approach to resolving family conflicts, pursuing redress through exposure of their father’s past transgressions, many of which extend beyond their family.

History

Kendrick desperately wants to start fresh and leave the past and all of its pain behind him, but his achievement is predicated on continuing a tradition that begins with his father, about whom he knows next to nothing.  In fact, Kendrick is shocked to find how much his mother has tried to protect him from the knowledge of their family’s history.  Once he enters his father’s world, however, he will find himself in a hall of mirrors where it becomes unclear whether he is moving to the future or colliding with a reflection of the unknown past.