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Chapter 12
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blueback, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Belonging, and Conservation
Family and Love
Greed and Environmental Destruction
The Ocean and Life’s Mysteries
Time, Change, and Continuity
Summary
Analysis
While work keeps Abel and Stella away from Longboat Bay, Dora Jackson observes disturbing changes at home. The weather grows unstable, and more sea creatures die mysteriously. Meanwhile, Dora has difficulty maintaining the house and land by herself. In winter, a terrible storm comes that riles the sea, destroys fences and sheds, and shakes the house.
Time brings more change to Longboat Bay. Abel’s absence and the effects of aging present new challenges for Dora, demonstrating how time can bring unwanted and adverse change. The worst changes in Longboat Bay—the storms and deaths of sea creatures—seem to be consequences of climate change. Thus, the novel depicts on a small scale some of the dangers of climate change, a global problem aggravated by humans’ apathy toward the environment.
Active
Themes
The next morning after the storm, Dora discovers thousands of whale bones exposed on the beach, as though “history” has “unearth[ed] itself.” When Dora walks among the bones, she feels like she’s walking through a graveyard. She thinks about how the Jacksons used to hunt whales and how she and Abel have been living off the sea. Dora understands she must help and protect the sea now.
The whale bones symbolize Abel’s family history. More than that, the bones being uncovered after all this time signifies that the past deeds of Abel’s ancestors—including whale hunting—are not lost to a distant past but instead continue to have consequences in the present. Being reminded of how much the Jackson family has taken from the sea over the generations inspires Dora to give back to the sea now. The whale bones encourage Dora to do whatever she can to protect sea life in return for everything the sea has given her family.
Active
Themes
At once, Dora starts writing letters to politicians, businesspeople, and scientists across the country. Most people ignore her, but she stubbornly persists for months. Eventually, Dora triumphs. Abel and Stella receive a message that Longboat Bay is now a protected marine park.
Active
Themes
Abel and Stella fly back to Longboat Bay. On the plane, Abel dreams that his mother is dead, and she sinks into the depths of the sea with Blueback following her. When he wakes up, Abel cries. He tells Stella that despite how hard he’s tried all his life to understand the sea, his mother is the one who has really understood it all along. She knows the bay because she is part of it and has never left it. Abel adds that he’s always longed to know “the language of the sea.” Stella suggests he might not “need words.”
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