Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hoot, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conservation and the Natural World
Bullying and Corruption
Morality, the Law, and Protest
Parenting and Support
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
As Roy and Beatrice sit in the waiting area at the Coconut Cove Medical Center emergency room, Beatrice says they’re even now. Roy assures Beatrice that Mullet Fingers will be okay. Just then, a woman in scrubs walks over, introduces herself as Dr. Gonzalez, and asks what happened to Roy. Beatrice and Roy exchange an anxious glance; Mullet Fingers wouldn’t let them give the hospital staff his name, so Roy gave his own name, address, and phone number. He’ll definitely get in trouble, but it seemed like the best way to get Mullet Fingers treatment.
Dramatic irony is at play here; that is, readers know Roy is fine and Mullet Fingers has actually been hospitalized, but few other characters (namely Roy’s parents) are aware of this. That Roy told hospital staff that Mullet Fingers was him also demonstrates Roy diverging from how he’s been taught to engage with adults. His parents have raised him to be honest and truthful. But in this situation, Roy decides it’s more important to get a vulnerable friend care than it is to tell the truth.
Themes
Beatrice tells Dr. Gonzalez that big dogs bit Mullet Fingers after soccer practice, and she brought him here right after. Dr. Gonzalez frowns—the bites are about a day old. Roy says that’s correct; Mullet Fingers passed out for a night, came running home, and then he and Beatrice brought him to the hospital. Dr. Gonzalez still isn’t convinced, especially when Roy says his name is Tex. Turning back to Beatrice, Dr. Gonzalez asks where her parents are. Beatrice says their parents work on a crab boat with no phone. When Dr. Gonzalez asks why nobody was worried when Mullet Fingers didn’t come home for a night, Beatrice quietly says he runs away sometimes. Dr. Gonzalez backs off and says Mullet Fingers is doing better, but Beatrice and Roy can’t see him yet—and they should work on their story.
Dr. Gonzalez clearly doesn’t believe Beatrice and Roy’s story. However, she, like Roy, seems to believe that it’s more important to get Mullet Fingers the care he needs than it is to know exactly what transpired to land him in the hospital. And interestingly, it’s the only actually truthful thing Beatrice says (that Mullet Fingers runs away) that causes Dr. Gonzalez to back off. It’s becoming increasingly apparent to Roy and to other adults that Mullet Fingers and Beatrice don’t have a supportive, safe place to go home to, which makes it all the more important that Roy and Dr. Gonzalez do what they can to help step up where Leon and Lonna have fallen short.
Themes
Once Dr. Gonzalez leaves, Roy and Beatrice hurry outside to talk. They agree that once it gets out that Mullet Fingers isn’t Roy, they’ll have a problem—and if Lonna finds out Mullet Fingers is here, she’ll ship him to a military school in Guam or something so he can’t run away. Roy doesn’t understand how parents can treat their kids this way. Suddenly, Beatrice skips away. She has to go make dinner for Leon like she always does, since he can’t cook and Lonna is a bartender. She tells Roy to not let anyone operate on her brother, but she refuses to tell Roy Mullet Fingers’s real name.
The stakes are high for Mullet Fingers. He clearly needs medical treatment, but getting treatment puts him at risk of Lonna discovering him—which will make things even worse for him in the long run. In addition to the threat Lonna poses, the revelation that Beatrice has been cooking for her dad for years is another indicator that his absent parenting has forced Beatrice to grow up long before she’s ready: she is functionally the adult at home.
Themes
Roy goes back inside and asks to call his parents. He leaves a voicemail, telling them he’ll be home once he and Beatrice clean up. Roy flips through some outdoor magazines and thinks about Montana until he hears sirens outside. He has no interest in seeing anything gory or depressing, so he decides to go find a vending machine. A nurse shoos him back to the ER after 15 minutes, but nothing seems amiss in the waiting room. There’s just a police cruiser outside, so Roy returns to his magazine. But then he hears raised voices coming from the treatment area and recognizes Mr. Eberhardt and Mrs. Eberhardt’s voices. He goes through the doors and shouts for his parents.
Once again, Roy makes questionable choices (in this case, lying) for good reasons. He doesn’t want his parents to worry, and he wants to make sure Mullet Fingers can continue receiving medical care. However, Roy also knows when to admit defeat and give up the ruse. With his parents yelling for him in the treatment area, Roy knows it’s not going to fly to hide and lie about this later. This highlights that Roy trusts his parents—they might be disappointed in or upset with him, but they won’t ship him off to a military school.
Themes
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The narrative steps back to when Officer Delinko offered to give the Eberhardts a ride to the hospital—the right thing to do, but also a good way to score points with Mr. Eberhardt. At the ER, the Eberhardts tell the clerk who they are, but the clerk refuses to let them see Roy, even when Officer Delinko tries to step in and use his uniform to his advantage. After a moment of arguing, Mr. Eberhardt steers Mrs. Eberhardt into the patient area. Just then, Dr. Gonzalez stops the Eberhardts and asks if they’re Roy’s parents—they don’t look like they work on a crab boat. Sighing, she leads them into the patient ward and says that if they can’t find the dogs, Roy will need rabies vaccines. Officer Delinko follows behind, curious what color Roy’s shirt is. But when Dr. Gonzalez pulls back the curtain, the bed is empty.
Finally, it comes out that Dr. Gonzalez’s patient wasn’t actually Roy, and she gets proof that Roy and Beatrice were lying about Beatrice and Mullet Fingers’s parents. That Mr. Eberhardt, a law enforcement officer himself, is so willing to shout and push his way into the treatment area offers some insight into why Roy decided it was okay to lie to get Mullet Fingers treatment. The Eberhardts, it seems, value meaningful support over blindly following the rules.
Themes
Dr. Gonzalez has no idea where her patient went. Officer Delinko steps between the doctor and Mr. Eberhardt, who looks angry enough to lash out. A few minutes later, Roy bursts through the door and into his parents’ arms. Dr. Gonzalez asks if this is really Roy, and Mr. Eberhardt asks to see the dog bites. Officer Delinko excitedly keeps his radio ready in case he needs to call for backup. Roy says he wasn’t bitten. He tells Dr. Gonzalez that he doesn’t know the running boy’s name or where he went. It is the truth.
Roy continues to demonstrate the positive effects of having a strong and trusting relationship with his parents. Especially now that Mullet Fingers is gone (and so can’t be helped), Roy instead focuses on telling the truth, trusting that his parents will believe him and understand why he lied to begin with.
Themes
