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Chapter 32
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
The ape men get excited when Jared approaches the Jakses’ house because of Sarah’s fireflies, which Jared can still see. As he walks in, Jared notices a “FOR SALE” sign on the Jakses’ front lawn. Jared asks if they’re selling the house, and Sarah says yes. Mrs. Jaks explains that she got bad news from the doctor, and she wants to make sure that Mr. Jaks will be taken care of. Suddenly, Jared starts sobbing at the sadness and unfairness in life. Sarah starts to cry too, and she and Jared hold each other. As they calm down, Jared asks when they’re leaving, and Sarah says soon. He tells her that he’ll miss her, and Sarah tells him to wait on the end credits.
Jared continues to avoid confronting the magic in his life, despite the fact that it remains a constant presence. In addition, Jared’s sadness reveals how valuable positive relationships like Sarah’s and Mrs. Jaks’s are for him, and how upsetting it is to lose them. The love that they gave him (excepting Sarah’s occasional violence and self-harm) provided him with the crucial support that he lacks in his relationships with his parents.
Themes
The fireflies start to talk, explaining that one’s existence suggests birth and even death, but Jared has no idea what they mean. Jared and Sarah go into the kitchen for tea. The fireflies continue to talk, explaining that human beings cannot reduce the universe to a single formula—transcendence is not only achieved with math. They explain that people are words and one’s soul is a poem; mortal words cannot say the “infinite unsayable.” Jared wonders how he can make the fireflies be quiet.
The fireflies hint at the idea that humans are misguided in their belief that they can make sense of or overcome the mysteries of the universe. There are many mysteries that are “infinite” and “unsayable” for humans, because they cannot comprehend all of the beauty in the world, or the fact that humanity’s role in the universe is relatively small and insignificant. On the other hand, Jared’s attempts to simply ignore the fireflies show that he's unwilling to even try to understand the magic and beauty around him; he simply sees these things as problems to ignore.
Themes
At that moment, someone knocks on the door for an open house. Sarah leaves, unable to handle giving another tour. The fireflies follow her out of the room and the ape men follow them. After the real estate agent comes through the kitchen with a family, Jared turns to Mrs. Jaks and tells her about when he popped out of his body after David hurt him. Mrs. Jaks explains that Jared was sleepwalking, and that she’s glad he came to her when he was lost, because she would have been lost without him.
Here, Mrs. Jaks acknowledges how her relationship with Jared has changed as he’s grown more mature. When Jared first came to Mrs. Jaks after David assaulted him, he needed her care. But over time, their dynamic reversed: Mrs. Jaks came to need him, and Jared was able to take on that responsibility because of the way his difficult family life prepared him to be selfless and mature.
Themes
The house sells by the end of the day. Mrs. Jaks’s daughter-in-law, Dawn, drives in from Prince George to help Mrs. Jaks get ready for the move. As everyone gets ready for bed, Sarah and Jared curl up on the couch, and Jared tells Sarah that he loves her. When Sarah pauses and asks if he’s saying that because he feels sorry for her, Jared tells her to pretend he didn’t say anything. Sarah says that he’s not the worst boyfriend in the world, and Jared replies that maybe they shouldn’t talk. Sarah suggests that Jared go home, so he angrily storms out the door.
Again, it makes sense that Jared is most willing to express his affection when he and Sarah are sharing this warm moment, because he feels that their relationship is safe and comfortable. This contrasts with the moments when Sarah wants to mix love and violence, which causes Jared to be less sure of their relationship.
Themes
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Outside on the dark street, Jared sees Baby waiting for him. She gallops towards him and he pets her head. His inner voice warns him that this isn’t Baby, but he doesn’t care. Suddenly, she runs away, and Jared follows her barks to the edge of the woods but stops before going in. He can feel himself being watched, and he realizes that Baby isn’t acting like herself—she would never go into the woods at night. Baby yelps, and Jared lurches because she’s in pain, but he can’t move. Then Sarah walks out of the woods in her Princess Leia buns and dress. Her eyes are black in the moonlight, and she stops out of reach.
Jared’s readiness to believe that this is Baby—even though he’s well aware that Baby is dead—is another example of his willingness to ignore the magic around him rather than trying to understand it. This ends up putting him in greater danger—as implied by the fact that he feels like he’s being watched—suggesting that ignoring his problems and the magic in his life only puts him further out of control.
Themes
Sarah asks if Jared wants to make out and make up, but Jared tells her that he’s looking for his dog. She explains that there’s a dog in a trap that was snapping at her, so she didn’t go near it. Jared realizes that this isn’t Sarah—her fireflies aren’t there, and she would never leave an animal in a trap. He wonders how someone could imitate Sarah and Baby so well, and he’s angry that someone watched him to find out what would lure him into danger.
It’s notable that whoever is trying to lure Jared uses Sarah, and especially Baby Killer, to elicit an emotional reaction. Jared misses his relationship with Baby Killer to the point that he goes looking for her, even though he logically knows that she’s dead. With this, the book makes it clear that openly affectionate and unconditionally loving relationships, like the one Jared had with Baby, are deeply valuable.
Themes
Drawing his gun, Jared says that what Fake Sarah is doing isn’t funny—it’s mean and hateful. He says he loved his dog, and Fake Sarah retorts that he loved his dog because he was her master—he only loves the beings that beg for food. She says that people are killing the world yet still wonder why other creatures hate them. Fake Sarah then shapeshifts into a river otter, and a pack of otters appears behind her.
As the river otters reveal themselves, their message becomes clear. They believe that human beings are destroying the world, and as such, magical beings and other animals are turning on humans in order to try and protect the environment.
Themes
Fake Sarah explains that Jared needs to be stopped, and he starts to back away. His inner voice says, “I’ll be there as soon as I can” and tells Jared not to run into the woods. Jared backs up all the way to the basement, locking the door behind him as the river otters bang on the windows. Jared texts Nana Sophia to ask what she knows about river otters, and Nana Sophia immediately replies that she’s coming to help.
Here, Jared starts to experience the fallout of having ignored the magic in his life (like his inner voice, which now clearly belongs to someone who is not Jared). He is now in imminent danger, as indicated by the voice’s concern and Nana Sophia’s extreme reaction to Jared asking about the river otters. They recognize what Jared does not: the need to deal with the problem quickly and directly rather than trying to ignore it.
Themes
