Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Elatsoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Friendship
Justice
Cultural Identity and Coming of Age
Colonialism and Monsters
Death, Grief, and Healing
Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
In the morning, Ellie invites Jay to visit Willowbee’s library with her. He texts that he can’t; Ronnie accepted Al’s proposal, and their parents are incensed. They decide to visit tomorrow. Ellie takes Kirby on a walk to the nearby park, where she settles on a bench and calls the trilobite’s ghost. She’s struck by how much it reminds her of crabs, roaches, and all manner of contemporary creatures. As she thinks about meeting Megalodon sharks and velociraptors, Ellie hears what sounds like millions of swarming trilobites, which she realizes are crawling over a prehistoric seafloor under her feet.
Again, Jay’s family shows that they’re not as accepting or supportive of their children as Ellie’s family is: their anger about a vampire marrying into their family once more exposes their bigotry. Meanwhile, Ellie begins to consider the shared experience of life on Earth, even among creatures that live millions of years apart. And suddenly, Ellie seems to be living in that historical world.
Themes
Unsure if—or how—she woke up so many trilobites, Ellie backs away from the park. Nobody else nearby seems to notice the sound or even Ellie. Trilobites swarm over houses and the street, but nobody reacts—and they should, even if they’re not as sensitive to ghosts as Ellie is. She assures everyone that they’ll be fine, but nobody responds, and her voice sounds strange. She can barely walk—it feels like she’s pushing through water. The trilobites swarm over her. Kirby’s bark causes them to fall away. Kirby also seems like he’s underwater, and everything is hazy and dim. Ellie realizes she somehow woke up an ancient ocean. Above her head, a huge pod of whales, all different species, swims past. Ellie realizes that this is every ocean that’s ever existed. She’s in the sea of the dead.
It's a terrifying moment for Ellie to realize she’s in the sea of the dead—it’s unclear how she got here or how she can get back. But this is also a learning experience for Ellie, as she not only gets to see these long-dead animals for herself, but she also gets to see one aspect of the underworld as well. Fortunately for Ellie, she still has Kirby to protect her—he’s not willing to leave his friend to her own devices in such a dangerous place.
Themes
