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
The whales sing and eventually pass as Ellie hides behind some coral, losing a flip-flop in the process. She grabs Kirby, fearing that one of the whales might eat him, and is shocked that he’s solid and furry. Is she dead? She can’t be, though; Ellie knows Trevor, Six-Great, and other ancestors would be here to guide her if she was. Reasoning that she should be able to find her way home again, Ellie remembers Dad teaching her to swim, but she begins to panic as she wonders if the ancient sea is a part of her. She feels like she’s drowning, and she remembers almost drowning on a camping trip. Dad saved her, and Ellie remembers feeling warm and safe. Suddenly, Ellie is back on the park bench, and a jogger greets Ellie.
Ellie demonstrates her maturity here by trying to logically work out how to get home again. It’s significant that she returns home only when she focuses on the sensation of being warm, safe, and with a trusted family member. This suggests that what ties Ellie (and perhaps others in the novel’s fantastical world) to the living world are their emotional connections to loved ones.
Themes
Ellie is missing a flip-flop and can’t find it, so she heads home without it. She knows that if she truly visited the underworld, she needs help: only a few have visited and survived. Once she finds Vivian and Gregory, Ellie asks if it’s possible to visit the underworld (Vivian says it theoretically is) and then tells her mom what happened. Looking extremely concerned, Mom reminds Ellie that there are stories, and people who stay too long in the underworld can get tricked and die. Ellie maintains that she doesn’t know what she did to travel to the underworld, though she mentions thinking about how even prehistoric Earth feels familiar. Vivian begs Ellie to “avoid philosophizing about the dead” until they speak to an elder, and to not call ghosts, including Kirby, either.
Because Ellie and Vivian have such a close and supportive relationship, Ellie has no qualms about immediately approaching her mom for help. In her response, Vivian asserts that this is a safety issue: Lipan beliefs and rituals surrounding how to think about and engage with the dead exist in part to keep people safe and out of the underworld. And she suggests that this is a matter that requires help from other tribal members, such as the elder, to figure out in full.
Themes
