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16. The Curse of the Matts
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Family
Coming of Age
Grief and Redemption
The Limits of Loyalty
Body Image
Summary
Analysis
Carl doesn’t know what Harley will get up to if he’s left unsupervised for the day, so he asks Joy to take both of them back to the barge. Harley spends the next few trips getting underfoot, stealing the hose, and dousing Carl at every opportunity. His antics annoy Carl, Skip, and the passengers. Joy takes a round trip around noon and after observing Harley at work, she insists on taking him home with her for the afternoon. Carl worries that she won’t be able to handle his wild younger brother, but she insists.
Joy steps in when it’s clear that Carl is in over his head with Harley. After all, he’s just a teenager himself, and having a full-time job is already more responsibility than he should be shouldering. Beryl is cruel and wrong to make him take on a parental role for his younger brother in addition. Carl’s worries about Harley reflect his poor self-esteem too: he’s coming to believe what people say about the Matts being inherently bad.
Active
Themes
When Harley and Joy make the round trip to pick up Maddie from the bus, Harley rolls down his window and tells Carl that he and Joy are baking a cake. Sure enough, on one of the last runs of the day, Harley and Joy come back again, with Harley carrying a chocolate cake on a cutting board. He insists on giving Carl the first slice, then he proudly offers slices to all the other passengers. The cake is delicious.
