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
It’s been seven days since Dad brought home Snickers, a labradoodle, from the pound—and he already knows how to play dead. Ellie demonstrates for Jay, who’s very impressed. She and Jay are working on a bridge model for physics class, but Jay notices another article about Willowbee in their stack of newspapers and clips it for his scrapbook. This is one is about a senator resigning after his connections with Willowbee came out. Jay notes that his mom thinks they can use the publicity to get college scholarships, though Ellie knows she’d have enough clients now to not have to attend school. But she tells Jay she still wants to go to college so she can be prepared for “the next Willowbee.”
It’s extremely humorous that Snickers’s first trick is learning how to play dead, given Ellie’s ability to call the dead. This passage seems to take place several months after the rest of the novel’s events, which suggests that in the last few months, anyone associated with Willowbee has been slowly getting their comeuppance. Justice is happening—just slowly. Ellie still recognizes the need to go to college so that she can draw on other people’s knowledge and can then help more effectively the next time something like Willowbee comes to light.
Themes
Ellie throws a toy for Snickers, who hides it under the bed. She begins to crawl in after him, but Jay yanks her out, screaming. Jay points to a floating skull with googly eyes—and Ellie commands Kirby to appear. He does, and after greeting Ellie, he and Snickers play for a while and cuddle together on the dog bed. Jay marvels at Kirby’s return, and then he picks up an odd, dirty doll from the floor. It’s made of a mesquite pod and rattles, and Ellie and Jay wonder if Kirby might have brought it from the underworld. Ellie is so happy, she feels like she could fly.
Kirby’s return brings the novel to a close on a happy note, especially since it’s implied that he’s been hanging out with Six-Great in the underworld (the mesquite pod toy looks like the ones Six-Great made for her dogs). Kirby has perhaps connected with his ancestors in the underworld. Now, he brings Ellie proof that Six-Great is there, watching, and cheering on her six-great granddaughter.
Themes
