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Chapter 36
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
For the next few days, Jared stays home, even trading rooms with one of the tenants so he can move back into his room upstairs. Jared climbs into his mom’s bed while Richie is out, and she assures him that she hexed the otters—it’s her only real magical talent. Jared then asks if she actually tried to kill Wee’git. His mom explains that she shot Wee’git in the head, stuffed him in a trunk, and pushed it into the ocean because he messed with Anita and then with her. But, she says, it’s impossible to kill Tricksters; you can only put them out of commission for a while. Jared wishes that he could watch his mom try to kill Wee’git the next time Wee’git comes back.
Jared’s move back to his upstairs bedroom is symbolic, as having a real room reflects Jared and his mother’s improved relationship. Whereas before she relegated him to the basement and ended up destroying his space in anger, now she is trying to support and take care of him while he heals from the river otters’ attack. However, this passage also illustrates that even people who have supernatural abilities—like Jared’s mom—can avoid their problems to their detriment. Jared’s mom shot Wee’git in the head despite knowing that he would return and cause havoc—again reinforcing the idea that the only way to regain control of one’s life is to address one’s problems, not put them off.
Themes
Later that day, a moving truck arrives to pack up the Jakses’ house. Jared goes over to their place and gives Sarah a hug, and she tells him that she’s not okay. Jared notices that the fireflies are silent. He wishes he couldn’t see them—he just wants his normal human sight back. Inside, Mrs. Jaks starts crying, and Mr. Jaks looks terrified. Jared takes Mr. Jaks to the bathroom to clean him up and calm him down, but Jared doesn’t know what to say to make it better.
This exchange with Sarah and the Jakses shows how Jared’s wish to not be able to see the fireflies is a direct extension of his desire to avoid his problems. He doesn’t feel like he's in control of his life, and he doesn’t know how to fix anything: the Jakses moving, Sarah’s sorrow, or the magical visions. As such, he’d just rather just avoid his problems.
Themes
Later, Sarah, Jared, and Dawn are sitting in the living room while the Jakses sleep. Sarah tells Jared that Sarah’s mom is coming the next day to bring her home—she doesn’t want Sarah to live on the reserve. Dawn goes out to get them dinner, and Sarah cuts Jared’s hair before examining his missing toe. After she rewraps his gauze, she runs her hands along his legs, trying to avoid the cuts on his body. Sarah and Jared then grab some alcohol and start to drink, and Jared tells Sarah that he’ll miss her. Sarah again tells him to stop rolling the end credits, saying that they’ll visit each other.
Here, Jared again uses alcohol to numb his pain—both the physical pain of his stitches and cuts and the emotional pain of losing Sarah. This shows that he’s still trying to maintain some control over his life by avoiding his problems, even though this won’t actually solve anything.
Themes
Jared and Sarah kiss and touch each other, and they position themselves on the bed to avoid his stitches. They start to move together, and Jared feels pleasure building up—he even hears music. Opening his eyes, the fireflies form a figure eight above his head and he sees that Sarah’s skin is shredding off and floating away. Sarah is amazed and glowing, realizing that Jared was telling the truth about the fireflies. Jared sees his skin shredding, too, and he stumbles off the bed and pulls on his clothes, terrified.
The way Jared immediately reacts with fear and staggers off the bed again illustrates that he’s unwilling to fully engage with magic. He would rather avoid it than confront what is happening, because he worries about the danger that the magical realm might pose. But as the book has illustrated up to this point, trying to avoid that danger will not actually save him from it.
Themes
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Jared goes into the kitchen, and the shreds sink back into his body. Sarah comes out and asks him to come back to bed, saying that she never felt anything like that before. Jared explains that what they’re doing is shredding them apart, but Sarah says that they’re joining. Jared tells Sarah that he’s scared, and he refuses to come back to bed.
Unlike Jared, Sarah is actually trying to engage with her magical abilities—she even points out that the experience could be positive, whereas Jared views it only as something fearful and dangerous.
Themes
Just then, the fireflies spring at Jared’s head. He hears a voice talking about magic, about asteroids soaring through the air, and about Tricksters. He can see visions of a fire on a beach, a spirit peeking out from behind a tree, and a longhouse in the mountains spewing terrible red smoke that smells like burning flesh. When Jared snaps out of these visions, the fireflies are amazed, realizing that he isn’t quite human because he has all these memories.
As the fireflies rediscover some of Jared’s buried memories, much of what the voice says is pulled directly from the previous chapters that talked about magic and the interconnectedness of all beings. This hints that Jared is starting to understand more about the role of magic in his life, as well as about humanity’s role in the universe. Yet he still isn’t able to engage with any of this, because he is so terrified of what it means to be able to transcend time and space. He still has a long way to go to fully understand his connection with the magical realm, rather than simply waving it off.
Themes
Sarah puts her hand on Jared’s forehead, asking to see what he sees. At that moment, Fake Sarah’s ghost comes through the wall, putting her own hand through Jared’s forehead. The ghosts of the otter people crawl through the walls, and Jared pulls away, stepping outside. He limps home with Sarah following him, the ghosts following her, and the fireflies swirling over everything. When Jared gets home, his mom sees the ghosts and smirks, satisfied that her curses worked. Jared’s mom tells Sarah to go home, asking to have a family moment, and Sarah looks forlorn as she leaves.
Because Jared is unable to understand what’s going on, he simply removes himself from the situation and walks home—again illustrating his impulse to simply avoid magic when he feels he can’t control it. On the other hand, the fact that Jared’s mom’s curses worked shows that engaging with magic and confronting problems directly does solve them.
Themes
When Richie returns home that evening, a grizzly bear follows him, shifting into the bedroom wall. Jared’s mom smacks the bear’s nose, and it disappears through the wall. Jared’s mom tells Jared to get some sleep, but he’s haunted by the vision of the longhouse and the acrid smoke.
Again, just as Nana Sophia easily dismissed the ape men, it is easy for Jared’s mom to deal with the grizzly bear because she confronts it directly. But because Jared doesn’t understand magic and refuses to engage with it, he is haunted by its possibilities, suggesting once more that avoiding one’s problems doesn’t actually solve them.
Themes
The next day, Jared stays home from school and ignores texts from Sarah—his mom won’t let Sarah into the house, and she wants to keep Jared close. That night, his mom offers him a large white pill, but Jared refuses it. He quickly falls asleep, and when he wakes up, he hears sirens wailing down the street. Jared’s mom looks out of the curtain and says that it’s Sarah. When Jared tries to get up, he sees the ambulance take off down the street. His mom holds him, preventing him from following after her and telling him that he’s done enough.
Here, Jared gets an even more severe lesson in the danger of avoiding one’s problems. Even though Jared doesn’t know exactly what happened yet, his mom’s statement implies that Jared likely had something to do with the fact that Sarah wound up in an ambulance. This implies that Jared’s unwillingness to face his magical abilities, or to help Sarah engage with hers, had very dangerous consequences.
Themes
