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
The next day, Saturday, Garrett calls just as Roy sits down for breakfast. Garrett invites Roy to skate at the outlet mall and asks him questions about Dana getting tied to the flagpole, but Roy can’t answer in front of his parents. A bit later, Mr. Eberhardt drives Roy to pick up his new bike tire, which means Roy can then visit the Leep home on West Oriole Avenue. Roy hears voices arguing inside and hopes it’s just the TV. Leon Leep himself answers the door, looking like he hasn’t exercised since retiring from the NBA. He absentmindedly goes to fetch Beatrice, who appears looking stressed. She says she can’t hang out and says she heard about what happened to Mullet Fingers at the hospital.
Roy trusts his parents, but he still acknowledges that they would not be thrilled to hear about Beatrice’s vigilante justice against Dana. Again, Roy continues to make his own choices when it comes to what he believes is right—and how much of that he shares with his parents. Visiting the Leep house highlights for Roy how good he has it at home. Beatrice seems uncomfortable and can’t speak openly about her stepbrother, and it seems like the adults may be fighting. This may be the source of Beatrice’s stress, though it’s never confirmed this is indeed what Roy hears.
Themes
Just then, a cold voice asks who Beatrice is talking to. Lonna herself appears behind Beatrice, fully made up and smoking a cigarette. Roy says he and Beatrice are working on a science project together, but Lonna says Beatrice is cleaning the house today. Beatrice is clearly enraged—Roy wouldn’t be surprised if she bites Lonna someday. As Roy pedals away, he considers that maybe Mullet Fingers is better off on his own. Lonna is awful, and Roy wonders what made her that way.
While Mrs. Eberhardt prioritizes Roy’s education (and so was happy to support Beatrice and Roy in their fake science experiment), Lonna reads as entitled and cruel. She treats Beatrice more like a maid than as a child to care for and guide. All of this causes Roy to wonder if maybe it's better to have no parents than to have neglectful ones. Beatrice, as Mullet Fingers’s stand-in parent, at least makes sure his needs are mostly met.
Themes
Roy rides to Dana’s house and “another shaky example of motherhood” next. But Mr. Matherson, not Mrs. Matherson, opens the door. He’s thin, shaky, and looks unhealthy. When Roy says he’s a friend of Dana’s, Mr. Matherson, clearly ashamed, tries to pay for homework he assumes Roy has done for Dana. Finally, he goes to fetch Dana, who’s enraged to see Roy. Dana steps onto the porch and swings at Roy, but Roy steps aside, so Dana hits the house instead. Roy points out that bad things happen when Dana tries to hurt Roy, so maybe Dana should just stop. Dana just growls that he’ll get Roy. This is not what Roy wanted to hear, so he sighs and walks away. He can’t even enjoy the sight of Dana trying to get back inside his own house—Mr. Matherson locked the door.
While Mr. Matherson is framed as something of a joke, it’s worth noting that he also contributes to Dana’s bad behavior. Mr. Matherson seems totally unwilling to take a stand and insist to his wife or son that their behavior isn’t okay—and if Dana bullies his dad, this has taught him that he can bully others to get what he wants. Roy approaches Dana as he often does (coolly, with logic), and Dana demonstrates once again that he’s not a logical, rational person. He wants what he wants, and in this case, that’s to hurt Roy for seemingly no reason.
Themes
Roy rides to the junkyard next to check on Mullet Fingers. Mullet Fingers crawls out of his sleeping bag in the ice cream truck and says he’s feeling a bit better. Roy shares what he learned about legal permits and says there’s nothing they can do for the owls. Grinning, Mullet Fingers says they have to think like “outlaw[s],” like Roy did when he helped Mullet Fingers get medical treatment. Roy shares too that the owls eat bugs, not hamburger, but Mullet Fingers impatiently says that the land is rightfully the owls’, not the pancake house’s. They discuss that Roy is from Montana, and Mullet Fingers muses that the mountains out there mean bulldozers can’t do as much damage. Roy can’t say that that’s not entirely true.
At the beginning of this passage, Roy seems to have taken his dad’s suggestion to heart: if Mother Paula’s has the permits, it’s then legally fine for the company to bulldoze the owl burrows. Mullet Fingers, however, encourages Roy to think about the owls and what humans might owe them. They deserve to live where they’ve been living, Mullet Fingers suggests, because the owls have been in Florida for way longer than people have. However, Mullet Fingers also reads as somewhat naive when he comments that Montana is less at risk of development than flat Florida is. Roy, having been there, knows that’s not the case—humans can, and have, developed all sorts of terrain.
Themes
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Mullet Fingers says he’s been watching people develop Florida’s wild areas since he was a kid, and he’s not going to stop fighting back. He had Beatrice write a letter to Mother Paula’s about the owls. He offers Roy the letter from Chuck Muckle, which reads simply that Mother Paula’s is committed to the environment and is complying with local laws and regulations. The boys step outside, and Mullet Fingers invites Roy to join him tonight. Roy lies that he has homework, and he warns that Mullet Fingers can’t stop a company as huge as Mother Paula’s. And Mullet Fingers will end up in jail sooner or later. Mullet Fingers says he’ll just run away, and he doesn’t miss living at home. He might go back to school someday, but for now, he’s happy. Then, he says he has something cool to show Roy and runs off.
As Mullet Fingers sees it, it’s his duty to stand up and advocate for the natural world and the animals that inhabit it, since the animals and wild areas can’t advocate for themselves. The letter from Chuck Muckle also makes it clear to him that big companies with something to gain by developing natural areas aren’t trustworthy: if they were committed to the environment, Mullet Fingers’s thinking seems to go, they wouldn’t be preparing to destroy owl burrows. And Mullet Fingers also makes it clear that he’s not afraid of running afoul of the law if it means he can protect Florida’s wilderness.
Themes
Back in the 1970s, a tropical storm came ashore near Coconut Cove. The 10-foot storm surge swept a crab boat called the Molly Bell up a creek, where she’s been ever since. Now, her exposed pilothouse is the perfect spot for two boys to sit. Roy is entranced by the beautiful wilderness around him, and he’s not scared when Mullet Fingers says he saw a nine-foot gator here. Roy even muses that he might’ve found this spot himself, had he not been busy moping about Montana. When Roy asks, Mullet Fingers says he and Lonna just don’t get along, and he never met his dad.
This is a transformative moment for Roy. Atop the Molly Bell, admiring the plants and animals around him, he has to admit that Florida has a lot going for it—and he can, perhaps, be just as happy here as he was in Montana. The natural world, in this sense, helps Roy feel more at home. Mullet Fingers’s insistence that he and Lonna don’t get along is certainly an understatement, and by saying this, Mullet Fingers also implies he doesn’t expect anything from her. He’s given up on ever getting support from her.
Themes
Just then, “they” come, and Mullet Fingers tells Roy to grab his ankles while he leans out over the creek on his stomach. He lunges and shows Roy his catch: a small, silvery mullet. Roy is impressed and Mullet Fingers returns the fish to the water. Later, as the boys return to shore, Roy asks what Mullet Fingers is going to do tonight. Mullet Fingers just tells Roy to come find out.
Notably, Mullet Fingers doesn’t catch the mullet to eat or to use as a baitfish. He catches it because he can, and then he lets it go. By catching the fish and letting it go, he demonstrates his close relationship to the natural world and shows that he respects it. Even a tiny fish like a mullet, his actions suggest, is worthy of wonder and dignity.
Themes
