Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Self-Confidence
Magic, Belonging, and Protection
Family
Mortality and Meaning
Truth vs. Deception
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Jacob sets out before his dad wakes up. When he goes to find the apple from the day before, he realizes that it’s spoiled so badly it crumbles in his hand. Confused, Jacob goes to the cairn and arrives at the house, where Miss Peregrine pulls him aside before he sees anyone. She scolds him for talking about the future with the other children, who were very excited about the technology Jacob described the previous day. It’s her job to protect them, and they can never be a part of his world. Now half of them are dreaming of cell phones and the other half want to fly on a plane.
The apple foreshadows what might happen to the children if they were to leave their time loop. It has particularly Biblical meaning as well, as the knowledge that Jacob gave the children (like the Biblical apple in the garden of Eden) is putting their immortality at risk by tempting them to leave the time loop. This parallel suggests that having immortality isn’t necessarily worth it, because it isn’t the same thing as living a happy, fulfilling life.
Themes
Jacob asks why the children can’t leave, and Miss Peregrine explains that if they stay in his world too long, they’ll die very quickly. Jacob realizes that this is what happened to the apple this morning. Miss Peregrine admits that this happened to one of the girls, Charlotte. When Miss Peregrine took a trip to visit one of her fellow ymbrynes, Charlotte wandered out of the loop and a constable discovered her. She was shipped off to a child welfare agency, and in the two days before Miss Peregrine retrieved her, she aged 35 years and was never the same afterwards.
Miss Peregrine’s explanation illustrates that even though the home provides protection for the children, it also becomes restrictive because of how dangerous it would be for the children to leave, even for a relatively small amount of time. Even though the time loop gives them a degree of freedom to do what they want without fear of outside dangers like bombs or even the threat of old age and death, at the same time the time loop is quite constricting.
Themes
Jacob asks if they can leave the island in their time, in 1940, but Miss Peregrine explains that they could get caught up in the war or encounter normal people who would fear and threaten them. She notes that there are other dangers, but she doesn’t explain what they might be. She tells Jacob to enjoy the morning, and Jacob quickly puts the apple out of his mind while going to find Emma. Hugh informs him that she went on a supply run to the village, so Jacob waits for her under a tree.
Again, the house forces the children to make a compromise: they have a place where they find belonging and protection, but even though they have gained immortality, they have also been essentially imprisoned in the home, with little ability to find greater purpose or meaning in life.
Themes
Jacob starts to realize that just being with the children is addictive—if he stays too long, he may never want to leave. At the same time, Jacob realizes that the place isn’t “just a heaven but a kind of prison, too.” It might take a person years to notice how addictive it is, and by that point it would be too late to leave.
Here Jacob recognizes that despite the outward appeal of immortality—the fact that it is “heaven”— remaining in one place forever would be extremely restrictive, like a “prison.” Since part of Jacob’s journey lies in being able to make his own choices, this introduces a tension between Jacob wanting to determine his own path and finding a place of belonging where his path would be restricted.
Themes
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Jacob dozes off and wakes to find an animated clay soldier nudging his foot. A boy calls out to bring the soldier back, and Jacob returns the figure. The boy introduces himself as Enoch, and Jacob thinks that he looks like a chimney sweep because of the black circles under his eyes and his dirt-stained clothes. Jacob is impressed that the boy made the soldier, which is just one of an army the boy has created. When the first soldier disobeys Enoch, he snaps off one of its legs, causing it to squirm on the ground.
Enoch’s treatment of the clay soldiers provides another perspective on why immortality isn’t necessarily a uniformly good thing. Enoch takes on a god-like status by animating the clay soldiers, but he also proves that wielding such power can lead a person to be callous and cruel.
Themes
Jacob is a bit disturbed by this display, and Enoch points out that the soldier wouldn’t be alive without him. He takes another soldier and cracks it down the middle, removing a tiny heart from its body. Enoch explains that the heart is from a mouse—his peculiar talent is the ability to take life from one thing and give it to something inanimate or even dead. He wants to train up a massive army. He asks what Jacob can do, and Jacob explains that he can’t do anything special. Enoch asks if he’ll live with them, anyway, and Jacob isn’t sure.
Here the book demonstrates the connection between trying to live forever and a kind of cursed life. Although the soldiers are animated, they are completely under Enoch’s control, and he can torture them however he chooses. This again counters the idea that an immortal life is an inherently good thing; it can be tormenting as well as freeing.
Themes
Enoch then asks if Emma told Jacob about a game they play called “Raid the Village,” and Jacob says no. Enoch says that there’s probably a lot that Jacob doesn’t know, because if he knew he wouldn’t want to stay there. When Jacob asks what Enoch means, he smiles wickedly and explains he could get in trouble for saying anything. But he gives Jacob one more crumb: that they couldn’t stop him from going upstairs and looking in the room at the end of the hall, where his friend Victor stays.
Enoch continues to hint at some of the less palatable parts of the children’s ability to live forever. Moreover, Enoch’s statement illustrates that Miss Peregrine and the other children aren’t being fully truthful with Jacob, and that this will eventually hurt him because of the disillusioning things he will discover.
Themes
Jacob quickly climbs the stairs and reaches the room at the end of the hall, finding a key on top of the door frame to open it. When he enters, he sees Victor lying on a bed behind a curtain, asleep—until Jacob realizes he’s actually dead. Suddenly, Bronwyn enters behind Jacob, explaining that he isn’t supposed to be there. Jacob realizes suddenly that Victor is Bronwyn’s brother; he remembers them both from his grandfather’s pictures. Enoch then appears in the doorway, suggesting he wake Victor up. Bronwyn begs him to, explaining that it’s been ages since they spoke to Victor. Enoch callously pretends to consider it, but then says Victor likes it better where he is. Jacob tells Enoch it’s cruel to toy with Bronwyn, and to trick him into coming to the room.
This is another example of why immortality might not necessarily be a good thing, according to the book’s perspective. Just because Enoch can raise Victor from the dead doesn’t mean that this is necessarily the best thing to do. First, this is another kind of prison—because Victor can only live some of the time, when Enoch has a heart available. And this also torments Bronwyn, because she knows that Victor is essentially imprisoned in the room with no ability to fully live out his life.
Themes
Jacob then asks how Victor died, but Enoch explains they can’t say. Hearing Miss Peregrine climb the stairs at that moment, Jacob makes a deal: he won’t tell Miss Peregrine that they told him about Victor so long as Enoch tells him about Raid the Village. Jacob shuts the door just as Miss Peregrine reaches the landing, and when she’s gone, Enoch explains that sometimes they smash up the village, chase people, and burn things down—to practice defending themselves. They don’t kill anybody, and if anyone gets hurt, it all goes back to normal the next day. Jacob protests that that’s terrible, and Enoch says Emma thinks so, too. But he assures Jacob that they’re not the ones who are wicked, alluding to some other danger threatening them. He then leaves the room.
The description of “Raid the Village” again illustrates the darker side of immortality. Because the children have the freedom of the time loop, they know that they can act violently without consequence. And because they can do so, they indulge those darker impulses. Just as Enoch feels he can torture the clay soldiers because they are beneath him and he gave them life, the peculiars justify their damage by saying that the people won’t really remember the harm that they caused, even though it’s very real in the moment. This again suggests that immortality isn’t inherently good.
Themes
Jacob tries to digest all of this information—he wonders what happened to Victor and about the danger that everyone seems to be hinting at. Jacob walks down the hall and hears Miss Peregrine once more, so he ducks into what he soon realizes is Emma’s bedroom. Jacob looks around the neat room until he finds a hatbox that says “Private Correspondence of Emma Bloom” on it, along with the words “Do not open.” Jacob can’t help himself, opening the box and finding old letters between Emma and his grandfather. They are long and sappy, and over time, they grow less frequent. Soon, they become just pictures rather than letters. In the last envelope his grandfather sent, he is holding a little girl—Jacob’s Aunt Susie at around four years old.
Here Jacob understands the visceral difference between a person who has been able to move forward with his life and find new meaning in it—his grandfather—and a person who has been essentially trapped by their circumstances—Emma. This is another way in which the time loop and the house become a prison, preventing those inside it from moving forward with their lives. Additionally, this shows another complicated family relationship, as even though Emma loved Abe, it’s clear that his absence and ultimate decision to start another family caused her pain.
Themes
Jacob wonders how many letters Emma sent his grandfather after that, and he also realizes quickly that it’s one of Emma’s letters that his dad and Aunt Susie found as kids, making them think he was cheating. Suddenly, Emma comes into the room, furious to find Jacob reading her letters. Emma sorts them back into the box, saying that if he wanted to know about her and Abe, he could have just asked. Jacob says he didn’t want to pry, but as Emma points out, he already has.
This exchange highlights two additional examples of why deception can be so problematic. Because Abe wasn’t open about the peculiar children or his situation with Emma, it caused Jacob’s dad and aunt to mistrust their father and question his character. And now, in trying to secretly look at Emma’s letters, Jacob has also undermined the trust between them when he could have simply asked Emma about her relationship with his grandfather
Themes
Jacob asks Emma what happened between her and his grandfather, and she explains it succinctly: they loved each other, and one day he left because he didn’t want to sit the war out while his people were being killed. He promised to return, but after the war, he said he would lose his mind if he came back. He was going to America to make a home, and then he'd send for Emma—except he never did. Jacob asks if she blames his grandfather for being stuck on the island. Emma denies this, explaining that she just misses him. For a moment, Jacob can see the pain of a grown woman nursing an old—but still raw—wound.
Emma’s relationship with Abe demonstrates another way in which family can be complicated. For as much as Emma and Abe loved each other, they still struggled in their relationship and ultimately ended up causing each other a great deal of pain because he wanted to progress and start a family while she remained on the island. This story also demonstrates that for Abe, the cost of a stagnant life was not worth immortality; he wanted more meaning, even if it came at the cost of his eventual death.
Themes
Jacob quickly realizes that he’s just a stand-in for his grandfather; Emma is still heartbroken over Abe. Emma puts her head on Jacob’s shoulder, and Jacob realizes how strange it would be to kiss her, even though he wants to. When Emma’s face moves in towards him, Jacob asks if there’s something between her and Enoch to kill the mood. Emma protests, saying he’s just jealous and a liar.
Jacob also recognizes how complicated his relationship with Emma is. Even though he likes her and wants to be with her, he is also gaining the confidence to stand up for himself and recognize that he doesn’t want to be seen as simply a replacement for his grandfather; he wants to be appreciated as his own person.
Themes
Jacob then changes the subject to Victor, asking what happened to the boy. He knows there’s something that they’re all not telling him, and his grandfather’s dying wish was for Jacob to know what was going on. Hearing this, Emma agrees to tell him that night, after his dad and Miss Peregrine have gone to sleep. They spend the rest of the day together in the yard before Jacob makes the trip back, alone.
Again, Jacob recognizes that he isn’t being told the full truth about life at Miss Peregrine’s home. He even intimates here that not understanding the full truth is weighing on him deeply, because it goes against his grandfather’s dying wish. These situations have taught Jacob the importance of the truth for healthy relationships.
Themes
Back in the 21st century, Jacob finds his dad in the pub and makes up stories about his day—but he notices something is off about his dad. His dad explains that another birder showed up who seems very serious about his work, and he’s disappointed that someone else is trying to scoop his book. Jacob assures his dad that he’ll write a better book than the other guy. Internally, Jacob can see his dad falling into a familiar pattern: getting passionate about a project for months until a tiny problem arises and completely derails it, causing him to simply move onto the next one. He’s still trying to find himself and prove that he doesn’t need his wife’s money.
Jacob’s dad provides another angle on the idea that part of maturity is finding confidence in oneself and being able to determine one’s own path. Jacob’s dad doesn’t feel either of those things, knowing that he relies on his wife’s money in order to be able to pursue what he wants, but also not having the confidence to persist in his passion when tiny problems arise. The fact that Jacob is comforting his father illustrates how their dynamic is shifting, with Jacob taking on a mature, reassuring role while his dad is behaving more insecurely.
Themes
Jacob wonders where the other birder is staying, and his dad speculates that he’s camping to show his hardcore dedication. Jacob asks why his dad isn’t doing the same and immediately regrets making his dad feel bad. Just then, the other birder walks into the pub. He’s wearing a rain hat and dark glasses and has a scruffy beard. He orders a few raw steaks before leaving the way he came. Jacob notes how weird that is, but Jacob’s dad assumes he has a cooking stove. Jacob and his dad then have another tense exchange where Jacob asks why his dad is defending the birder—his “archnemesis”—before his dad asks Jacob to stop making fun of him and goes to the bar.
Jacob’s exchange with his father here illustrates the complicated and often painful relationship between them. While there is love there, they often feel unsupported by each other—Jacob feels his dad isn’t fully listening, while Jacob’s dad feels that Jacob doesn’t respect him. Moreover, the description of the birder, and the fact that Jacob reads him as strange, foreshadows sinister developments to come.
Themes
A few hours later, Jacob’s dad returns to the room very drunk and immediately falls asleep. Seizing the opportunity, Jacob sets out to see Emma. In the dark and the rain, Jacob immediately gets an eerie feeling from the empty town, and he notices the birder watching him with binoculars. Jacob feels like he’s caught, but the man doesn’t move, so Jacob continues on the path.
The book continues to point out the menacing and ominous nature of the birder, suggesting that he isn’t exactly what he seems and will take on a more sinister persona in the future. This again highlights the book’s perspective that deception and secrecy are tools of villains—lying is never a virtuous tactic.
Themes
Passing through the cairn, Jacob finds Emma on the other side. She throws her arms around him and tells him she missed him before leading him to a “special place.” Jacob is nervous, still somewhat uncomfortable with the romance between them, but deep down he really does want to follow her. Emma leads Jacob to a rocky path, where she takes out a pair of snorkeling masks. She tells him to take off his clothes, but Jacob starts to protest that he doesn’t want to swim in the middle of the night.
Again, Jacob encounters complicated feelings around beginning a romance with Emma, reflecting the fact that they belong to different worlds. It also demonstrates that he is finding the confidence to know and assert what he really wants.
Themes
Emma playfully starts to wrestle with Jacob, trying to get his clothes off and rubbing sand in his face. Jacob returns the favor, and afterwards they’re laughing and exhausted, and Emma points out that now he’s so dirty he has to go in the water to wash off. Jacob relents, diving in the cold water and finding that it’s pleasant after he gets used to it. They swim out to find a canoe, then paddle until they come upon a shipwreck of an allied warship, which is so close to the surface that they can stand on the ship’s hull. They dive down and Jacob sees a tube that reaches far under the surface for them to breathe, and Jacob takes a breath from it.
The wrecks of the allied warships reminds readers of some of the dangers that the children are facing there. This is one of the reasons why they have been forced to remain in their time loop on the island, because the outside threats loom large and often unseen (much like the threats they face from hostile outsiders). And yet exploring them shows that Emma and the others would rather invite danger if it means that they get to pursue adventure and meaning.
Themes
Emma leads Jacob into the ship’s door in total darkness. Jacob is amazed as they sit floating like astronauts in the silent darkness, passing the breathing tube between each other. Suddenly, small green lights appear and twinkle around them. Emma produces a ball of fire and the lights—which Jacob realizes are fish—move around it, mimicking what she does. They stay there for what feels like hours while Jacob watches in amazement, until Emma motions to Jacob to swim up. Back on the surface, Jacob says that the fish are “beautiful” and “peculiar.”
This is a key example of how Emma’s peculiar powers, which have set her apart from other people, are also what make her special—providing Jacob with this beautiful light show. And Jacob notes how the fish are similar: their glow sets them apart as “peculiar” but it is also what makes them “beautiful,” much like Emma.
Themes
Emma smiles and puts her hand on Jacob’s knee, and then suddenly they’re kissing. Jacob can’t remember why he ever had doubts about doing so, nor can he remember why he met up with her in the first place. As she pulls away, she tells Jacob that he should stay with them. Jacob thinks about it; he knows he would get bored of the perfect days all the time—as he knows from his mother’s life. Still, he does like Emma and thinks he could stay there for just a little while. But he knows that by the time he would want to leave, it would be too late for him to do so.
Ironically, even as Jacob doesn’t want to feel like a stand-in for his grandfather in his relationship with Emma, he is considering the exact same choice that his grandfather did. He doesn’t want to stay on the island, knowing that only experiencing perfect days without any sort of progression is essentially a meaningless life, even though it affords him an essentially immortal one.
Themes
Jacob explains that he can’t be Abe for her, but Emma says that Jacob belongs there. Jacob protests, saying that he and Abe aren’t peculiar; otherwise he would have noticed. Emma says that she’s not supposed to tell him this, but ordinary people can’t pass through time loops. Emma says that Abe had a peculiar talent, something almost no one else can do: he could see the monsters.
Emma’s surprising news is a major shift for Jacob, who is finally able to feel a sense of total belonging, because like the other children, he, too, is peculiar after all.
Themes
