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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Son of a Trickster, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dysfunctional Families, Responsibility, and Maturity
Love vs. Violence
Escapism and Confronting Problems
The Environment and Human Destruction
Summary
Analysis
In May, with little over a month of school left, Jared finds final bill notices in the mail. He sells the living room TV and calls the utility companies and the banks. He’s not sure how long it’s been since his mom has been home. He knows he can’t call his dad—Jared helped Destiny move into a shelter with Ben, but Shirley wouldn’t let his dad answer the phone when Jared calls anymore. And when he goes over to Mrs. Jaks’s, she won’t tell him where Sarah is.
Over a month later, Jared still hasn’t talked to his mom, and her and his dad’s irresponsibility has forced even greater responsibility on Jared. Now, he has to be his own parent as well as Destiny’s, worrying about making money and paying bills when he should be focused on school. The more they avoid their duties as parents, the more sacrifices Jared has to make in order to survive.
Themes
Finally, Jared decides to message Nana Sophia, asking to stay with her for the summer. She says that she can buy him a plane ticket as soon as he finishes school and tells him she loves him. Jared knows that his mom will probably disown him for running off to Nana’s, but his mom isn’t even there. If he can’t come up with the money to keep the house going, he’ll leave.
Nana Sophia represents a stark contrast to Jared’s mother: she provides Jared with unconditional love in a way that Jared’s mom doesn’t, which is why Jared relies on Nana Sophia in his time of greatest crisis. Moreover, Nana Sophia is willing to take on responsibility so that Jared doesn’t have to. This is the reverse of his relationship with his mom, as she abandons all responsibility and forces him to become independent at 16.
Themes
That afternoon, the power goes out, even though Jared made a partial payment on the electricity. When he calls the utility company, they say that they’ll reconnect it in a day or two. In the meantime, one of the tenants in the house moves out. Jared begs the others to help pay the bills, but they refuse and say that they’ll give him a day or two for the power to go back on. Normally, this is the time of year when Jared and the Jakses turn over the soil in their garden, but this year everything feels shaky, and planning feels dangerous.
Jared’s mother’s absence forces Jared to worry about how to keep up his home for himself, as well as about how to keep up the house so that the tenants will stay. Jared’s description of this year as “shaky” only underscores the chaotic position that his mother has left him in, despite the fact that he’s still only a teenager. Jared has to take on the duties of a parent and a landlord, which is an example of how a dysfunctional home life can force children to take on enormous responsibility.
Themes
Jared goes to school early to shower there, grateful for the hot water. He has a pop quiz in science class and homework due in French, which he hasn’t done. At lunch, Jared eats food he got from the food bank. He has no idea how to make the bills. After lunch, Sarah approaches Jared and greets him with a “Hadih,” saying that she’s decolonizing her language. She asks to stay over that night, and he says yes, even though the power is out. Sarah tells him that Mr. Jaks came back to the house for a week but almost killed himself in the garage—now he’s back in respite care. Sarah asks Jared to skip class with her, and they wander down to a park and push each other on the swings. They kiss, and Jared can tell that she’s been crying.
Like Jared, Sarah also provides some insight into how children from dysfunctional families may be forced to mature much faster than their peers. Sarah has to deal with the gravity of her grandfather almost killing himself, while Jared has to go to the food bank or shower at school for hot water because his mom has abandoned him. The challenges that Jared and Sarah face are juxtaposed with actions more typical of teenagers (like not doing homework or playing on a swing while skipping class), demonstrating how their normal duties as teenagers seem trivial in the face of their more adult responsibilities.
Themes
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Back in the basement, Jared and Sarah build a fort and light it up with a battery-powered lantern. Jared lights a joint while Sarah puts a blot of LSD on her tongue. Jared refuses, saying that he has bad trips, and he smokes pot instead. Placing his hand on her rear end, Sarah asks Jared to spank her, but he refuses, saying that it’s not his thing. She suggests that she could tie him up, saying that she’s bored of making out, but Jared again says no.
While Sarah is eager to bring violence into her and Jared’s relationship for greater excitement, Jared’s hesitation to spank Sarah or have her tie him up demonstrates his uneasiness with mixing violence and love.
Themes
Just then, Jared notices a web of lines on Sarah’s inner thighs. When he asks who made them, she says that she did. As Jared feels the high in waves, he tells Sarah that his mom dated a guy named David who broke his ribs when Jared got poor grades—David got an erection when Jared started screaming. Sarah flinches, saying that’s messed up. She curls into Jared, explaining that she’s numb all the time and just wants to feel something. Jared says that he doesn’t want to hurt her or be hurt. When Sarah asks what happened to David, Jared explains that his mom nailed David’s feet to the floor.
Here, Jared reveals the final piece of his backstory with David, which provides further context as to why Jared is so uncomfortable with mixing violence and affection. David’s abuse also involved sexual arousal in a way that was confusing and emotionally painful for Jared. So, whereas Sarah wants to mix sex and violence as a way to make their relationship more intimate, this idea makes Jared uncomfortable because of his past trauma.
Themes
Sarah says that Jared is crackling like an electric guitar being tuned. She says she knows where Jared is all the time because she can hear him. Looking at him, Sarah says that he’s glowing and that she can see his bones—like an X-ray. Jared giggles and says that she’s wasted. Sarah makes sounds like a lightsaber, pointing out the Darth Vader poster on the ceiling.
Jared continues to dismiss any possibility of magic in his life, instead choosing to believe that drugs are the culprit in Sarah’s visions. This passage also reinforces the idea that Sarah and Jared use drugs to escape their problems and to feel like they have more control over their lives, when in reality, it only pushes them further out of control.
Themes
Later, Sarah straddles Jared, showing him new cuts on her arm that she made while he was sleeping. He isn’t sure how to react to this, so he just nods. Sarah starts to cut herself with a knife in front of him, daring him to say something. Jared is weirded out but doesn’t know what to do, and Sarah starts to get lost in the cutting, as if he isn’t there.
In addition to Sarah’s desire for violence in their sexual relationship making Jared uncomfortable, her self-harm worries him as well. Sarah seems to use cutting herself as a way to control her body or make herself feel something, when in reality, it only hurts her.
Themes
Sarah again asks to tie Jared up, saying that they can just pretend using a headband. Jared says no, but when Sarah tells him she can pull a zipper down with his teeth, Jared gets an erection and grows more interested. She cuts into the couch cushion with the knife and threads the headband through, tying Jared’s wrists up. She kisses him down his throat and chest. But when she licks his ribs, Jared’s erection sags. He stares at the ceiling, noticing that Darth Vader lost his thought bubble.
While some of what Sarah is saying arouses Jared, it’s nonetheless clear that he finds mixing violence and affection uncomfortable. When she licks his ribs, he loses interest, likely because it triggers the memory of David breaking his ribs in the past. Instead, Jared seems drawn to warm love that’s uncomplicated by violence (like what he experiences in his relationship with Nana Sophia). It’s also notable that Jared looks at Darth Vader in this moment and notices that the poster has lost its thought bubble. The poster has been an ongoing symbol of Jared’s innocence, so this slow decay reflects Jared’s own loss of innocence as he becomes more involved in adult relationships and responsibilities.
Themes
Sarah unzips Jared’s jeans with her teeth and pulls his pants down, and his erection springs free. She kisses slowly up his thighs and then starts to suck on his penis. Jared’s erection becomes painful, and he starts to moan as she lowers her mouth, embarrassed to sound like that. He says, “I don’t know, Sarah,” and she sits up as they pant. She tries to kiss him, but he turns his head away from her, asking her to get off of him. She jokes around with him and he laughs, losing his train of thought as she strokes him.
This scene illustrates Jared’s unsettled feelings about violence in his sex life with Sarah. Even though he gets pleasure from sex, that pleasure is complicated by the fact that his past experience with David has given him negative associations with being trapped on a bed. Thus, the book illustrates how mixing violence and love in this way can be confusing and painful.
Themes
Later, Sarah tells Jared that her uncles are driving down to help her care for Mrs. Jaks. Her mom never talks about that side of the family—her mom is embarrassed about being Native and tells people they’re Spanish. Sarah’s mom also says that she wasn’t meant to be a mother. Jared says that his mom thinks he’s weak and probably isn’t coming back.
Sarah and Jared’s reflections illustrate how their mothers have made their children more responsible because they avoid their parental duties. Jared is currently keeping up the house by himself, while Sarah’s mother has sent her to the Jakses to take care of both herself and her grandparents.
Themes
Sarah then goes to get a can of frosting and Sesame Street cookie decorations that Jared got from the food bank. She tells Jared to close his eyes, and when he opens them, she’s naked on the cushions with frosting and decorations on her crotch. She starts to sing “C is for Cookie,” and Jared collapses in laughter. Jared says that he thinks he loves her, and Sarah retorts, “You’d say anything to get laid.”
This moment contrasts with Jared being tied up earlier. Whereas mixing love and violence made him uncomfortable and uncertain, here the warm, playful affection between Sarah and him buoys Jared so much that he almost tells Sarah that he loves her. In this way, the book suggests that warm affection provides a healthier foundation for a relationship than violent passion.
Themes
