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
After dinner, Roy joins Mr. Eberhardt in the den. Roy is carrying a book, The Sibley Guide to Birds, which Mr. Eberhardt gave Roy a few years ago after an argument they had about whether they’d seen a juvenile bald eagle or an adult golden eagle. Roy tells his dad which page to turn to, and Mr. Eberhardt reads about the burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia. Leaving out Mullet Fingers’s nickname and a few details (such as that the snakes were poisonous and their mouths were taped shut), Roy tells his dad everything. He concludes by saying that the running boy is just trying to save the owls. If the Mother Paula’s people bulldoze the property, they’ll bury all the owl dens.
Roy now understands fully why Mullet Fingers keeps vandalizing the construction site: the owls will lose their homes, and this, both boys believe, is unacceptable. So, by approaching his dad with information about the owls and explaining why he and Mullet Fingers have done what they’ve done, Roy hopes that his dad will understand that they hold the moral high ground. In other words, yes, Roy lied to his parents and Mullet Fingers has committed some petty crimes—but in this context, Roy suggests that’s okay, since burying owl dens isn’t.
Themes
Sadly, Mr. Eberhardt assures Roy that Mother Paula’s certainly has all the permits. Roy is shocked that one can get a permit to bury owls, and he insists it’s inhumane—how would the Eberhardts like it if someone bulldozed their house and told them to move on, that it was no big deal? The owls might have babies in their burrows that are too little to fly. Mr. Eberhardt suggests they take a walk. He says Roy is growing up fast, but Roy isn’t convinced. Roy asks if his dad remembers the time they floated the Madison canyon and saw five great horned owls in one tree. Sighing, Mr. Eberhardt confirms that Roy truly doesn’t know Mullet Fingers’s name. Mr. Eberhardt says his main concern is the Leeps’ family situation, but he’s going to think about all of this. Roy should do the same.
Mr. Eberhardt introduces Roy to the uncomfortable truth that the law isn’t always as moral or just as one might hope. But this only heightens Roy’s ire and tells him that the law should change—it’s totally inappropriate, Roy believes, to prioritize corporate profits over innocent owls and nature more broadly. As Mr. Eberhardt sees it, that Roy is thinking about these things is a sign that he’s growing up, maturing, and beginning to decide what kind of an adult he wants to be. However, Mr. Eberhardt, as the actual adult in this situation, is far more concerned with the fact that the Leep kids don’t have a safe, supportive parent at home.
Themes
When Roy crawls into bed a bit later, he can’t sleep. He picks up a library book, A Land Remembered, which is about a family living in Florida in the 1850s. There was way more wildlife and fewer people in Florida back then—it would’ve been a good time to be an owl. Roy has dozed off when Mrs. Eberhardt enters his room to say goodnight a bit later. She tucks him in tightly and says that she loves Roy, but it’s not okay to lie, even if it’s to protect a friend. Roy argues that the doctors were asking nosy questions, all while Mullet Fingers was about to pass out from the fever. He’d lie again if he had to. Mrs. Eberhardt smiles and says that Roy will encounter situations where what’s right and wrong won’t always be clear. He should go with his best judgment.
The Florida that A Land Remembered portrays is, as Roy suggests, no doubt better for animals. But the early days of Florida’s development are also, in turn, the beginning of prioritizing human development over nature, something Roy is beginning to see as a problem. When Roy and his mom argue, he insists that adults should be more focused on helping people than on getting all their facts straight. To him, that’s what it means to do the right thing. Unwittingly, his mom supports this view when she tells him to use his best judgment in unclear situations.
Themes
Mrs. Eberhardt asks why Mullet Fingers wouldn’t give his name and why he ran from the hospital (he escaped through the women’s restroom window and left his green shirt dangling on Officer Delinko’s patrol car). Roy says he was afraid someone would call his mom—she doesn’t want him and keeps shipping him off to military schools or juvenile halls. Mrs. Eberhardt’s expression is something between anger and sadness, and Roy feels awful for bringing it up. She kisses Roy and says that she and Mr. Eberhardt are proud of Roy. Roy asks if she heard about the owls, and then he asks what he should do. Mrs. Eberhardt is confused, so Roy brushes her off. She already answered his question, anyway.
Roy seems to suspect that since his mom lost a very wanted pregnancy years ago, it’s even more difficult than it might be otherwise for her to hear about a mother not wanting her child. Again, this reflects Roy’s close and caring relationship with his parents. But though Roy is trying to care for his mom a bit here, he also wants her approval. This is why he asks what he should do about the owls. However, as Roy sees it, his mom has essentially already given him permission to do whatever he thinks is the morally right thing to do—even if it might not be strictly legal or honest.
Themes
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