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
In his bedroom, Roy stares at his cowboy poster and wishes he was as brave as a bull rider. He’s not though. It’s too risky to go to the Mother Paula’s construction site, and Roy doesn’t want to do anything illegal. Still, he can’t stop thinking about how distraught the owl parents will be when the bulldozers bury their babies in the dens. Deciding that something being legal doesn’t make it right, Roy gets up and tells Mrs. Eberhardt he’s going for another bike ride. He rides to Dana’s house and slips into the backyard. When he finds Dana’s window, Roy gets Dana’s attention, salutes, turns around, and pulls his pants down. Even upside-down through his legs, it’s still clear to Roy that Dana has never been mooned like this. Roy pulls his pants up and walks to the front of the house.
It is Roy’s own close relationship with his parents, perhaps, that makes him so sympathetic to the owl parents’ plight (that their babies could be killed during construction). This helps Roy decide to take action. He also takes his parents’ advice to heart when he notes explicitly that something being legal doesn’t make it right. He suggests that it’s inappropriate to kill wild animals for financial gain and so suburbanites can have yet another chain restaurant in town. It's not yet clear what Roy's plan is, but mooning Dana like this suggests Roy is going to try to manipulate the bully.
Themes
Dana appears moments later, and Roy begins to jog away. He wants Dana to chase him, but unfortunately, Dana is very out of shape. Dana looks ready to pass out before Roy has reached his destination, so Roy pretends to tire and allows Dana to tackle him (Dana is so exhausted he can’t effectively throttle and punch Roy). Still, Roy acts afraid and apologizes for mooning Dana. Then, Roy says he knows where a case of cigarettes is—and he’ll show Dana if Dana promises not to beat him up. When Roy says they’re Gladiator Golds, Dana lights up and swears on his father’s grave not to hurt Roy. Roy says the cigarettes are in the construction trailer on the lot at East Oriole and Woodbury, and he and some friends stole them on the Seminole reservation. Dana shoves Roy back into the flower bed and races off.
Roy knows what Dana’s weakness is (cigarettes), so he’s able to craft a story that will cause Dana to look like the Mother Paula’s vandal by getting Dana onto the site and convincing him to poke around and disturb things. This, Roy seems to hope, will then give Mullet Fingers a distraction and will allow him to carry out whatever he has planned tonight without much risk of encountering the police or Curly. Notably, what Roy is doing is questionably legal and moral—framing someone, even someone as reprehensible as Dana, isn’t necessarily legal or kind. But Roy has decided to prioritize the owls and Mullet Fingers for now—and the bigger injustice of Mother Paula’s destroying owl burrows.
Themes
Curly survives his Friday night and replaces the toilet seat on Saturday. He even picks up a movie at Blockbuster in case the cable goes out again. He’s very annoyed, though, when his wife informs him that she and her visiting mother will need his truck. So, alone Saturday night at the site with no vehicle, Curly checks the property. He figures tonight will test how effective his presence is, since the property will look uninhabited without his truck there. Finding no cottonmouth moccasins, Curly baits the rattraps and arranges them around the trailer before going inside to watch The Last House on Witch Boulevard III, Kimberly Lou Dixon’s first film. It’s awful, so Curly turns on a golf tournament and falls asleep.
The brick-and-mortar video rental store Blockbuster was wildly popular and a major cultural establishment in 2002, when Hoot was published. Curly’s entire evening is played for comedic effect, but again, his discomfort with the natural world is evident: he purchases huge rattraps to catch tiny mice and keeps a close eye out for venomous snakes, which readers know aren’t on the property anymore. That Dixon’s first film was so terrible suggests that her claims to fame aren’t as meaningful as Chuck Muckle might like to think.
Themes
Curly wakes in the dark to a loud snap coming from outside. Someone is hitting the trailer and cursing outside. Steeling himself, Curly busts out the door and pins a big, lumpy kid (Dana) to the ground. The kid, who has rattraps attached to each sneaker toe, introduces himself as Roy Eberhardt and begs Curly to not call the police. Curly taunts the boy for his previous crimes, but the boy maintains he’s never been on the property before. When Curly reaches down to pull the kid up, the boy pulls Curly to the ground, throws dirt into Curly’s face, and tries to run away with the rattraps rattling on his toes. He trips in an owl burrow before continuing on.
Readers, of course, know that Dana is lying about being Roy—though he is telling the truth, most likely, about having never been on the property before. That Dana is willing and capable of taking on Curly, a grown adult, also highlights his size and his capacity for violence. Meanwhile, Dana tripping in the owl burrow before running away from the scene is yet another reminder that the owls are alive and well on the construction site. Even if they themselves are shyer and less visible, their homes are impossible to miss.
Themes
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Officer Delinko is glad to have Saturday off after his disastrous Friday night at the emergency room. He figures that Roy knows more about the vandalism at Mother Paula’s than he’s letting on, but he’s also confident that Mr. Eberhardt, with his background in interrogation, will get to the bottom of it. After a day spent watching baseball, Delinko decides to pick up a frozen pizza for dinner, which will let him drive past the Mother Paula’s site. Hopefully he can catch the vandals and get off desk duty—and save his reputation at work. But near the site, Delinko sees a hulking teenager (Dana) moving oddly down the road due to rattraps attached to his toes.
Officer Delinko misjudges Roy’s relationship with his dad. Sure, Mr. Eberhardt might be skilled at interrogation, but he also trusts his son and has a loving, open relationship with Roy—he’s not going to employ the same interrogation tactics on his own child that he might on an adult criminal. And Delinko is still extremely focused on his career and proving himself, which means he’s consequently not at all focused on the broader implications of the Mother Paula’s construction (including the owl burrows’ destruction).
Themes
Delinko turns on his lights, gets out, and asks the boy (Dana) if they can talk. The boy refuses and says he wants a lawyer, but he’s unable to evade Delinko due to the traps on his feet. Moments after Officer Delinko puts the boy in the car and begins to drive, he notices Curly running behind him. Curly praises Delinko: Delinko caught the vandal, whose name is Roy Eberhardt. Delinko says he knows Roy, and this isn’t him. Still, he invites Curly to get in so they can go to the station and press charges. Privately, Delinko is ecstatic and looking forward to interrogation—this will be his first chance to try it out in the field. He asks the boy for his name, but Dana just asks for a cigarette.
Now that Curly is off the lot and he and Delinko believe they’ve caught the vandal, the real vandal—Mullet Fingers—is free to do whatever he likes. Roy’s plan worked out, and he’s been able to help out a friend and the owls. Delinko’s youth, inexperience, and naivete shines through when he notes he’s looking forward to his first real experience with interrogation. He is almost certainly inflating his confidence and skill level, which doesn’t bode well for Dana or for Delinko getting to the bottom of the mystery.
Themes
