Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Son of a Trickster, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dysfunctional Families, Responsibility, and Maturity
Love vs. Violence
Escapism and Confronting Problems
The Environment and Human Destruction
Summary
Analysis
Jared wakes on January 1, 2013 covered in a Buzz Lightyear comforter in an unfamiliar room that’s full of Doctor Who paraphernalia. A Native kid greets Jared and asks if he wants breakfast, but Jared asks for “hair of the dog” as his stomach lurches. The boy says that it’s a dry household before thanking Jared for saving him last night from Dylan at the party. Jared asks what happened, worried what Ebony would do if he embarrassed Dylan publicly.
Jared waking up completely unaware of where he is illustrates how he has been using drugs to escape reality—to the point that he is making himself black out and not remember incidents of the previous night. He also wants to use “hair of the dog” (drinking alcohol to stave off a hangover) to further that escapism, so that he doesn’t have to confront the negative consequences of drinking so much. This illustrates how addiction and alcohol use can be a cycle, as people may experience the negative consequences of addictions and use drugs even more as a result.
Themes
The boy explains that Jared, Dylan, and some other friends were playing tag with firecrackers and Dylan’s sister didn’t like it—she told the boy to stop them, and Dylan got angry. When Dylan and his friends tried to throw the boy in a snowbank, Jared stopped them; when Dylan started to make fun of Jared, Jared called Dylan out and ran his mouth. Jared groans, wishing that one day he would wake up with an attractive girl instead of in some random kid’s room.
Jared again demonstrates his responsibility, even when drunk: despite the fact that Dylan is his friend, he still wants to protect George from bullying. This continues to underscore Jared’s parental instinct, which speaks to the idea that children from dysfunctional families often develop greater maturity than their peers.
Themes
The boy introduces himself as George, and he tells Jared that he put up a video of what happened the previous night—he also reveals that Dylan is getting thrown off the hockey team. Jared asks George to take the video down, worried that Dylan will be mad at him. George recalls a time when Dylan took his pants, swirled him, and filmed him going all the way home. Then, Jared asks where his own clothes are, and George explains that his mom is washing them. Dylan dumped a keg on Jared’s head, and Jared wouldn’t tell George where he lived, so George and his mom took him in for the night.
Unlike many of his peers, Jared doesn’t enjoy abusing or bullying others. This derives from the fact that he’s more mature than most of his peers, as well as the fact that his own violent experiences have been very painful for him and made him resistant to committing violence against others.
Themes
Jared asks where George lives, and he says that he’s two houses down from Dylan on the Kitamaat reserve. George asks what clan Jared belongs to, but Jared simply says that his mom doesn’t talk to her family. George talks about his family for a bit, but Jared can’t focus on what George is saying and asks to take a shower. In the bathroom, Jared gets nauseous and throws up in the toilet. After his shower, Jared finds his clothes neatly folded, and George brings him ginger ale and nausea pills.
Jared uses alcohol to try to avoid bullying and violence. But the fact that he almost ends up out on the street for the night and gets sick afterward illustrates that alcohol and drugs can be even more harmful and create just as many problems for a person as what they’re trying to avoid. Instead, the book suggests, it’s important to confront one’s problems directly rather than trying to escape from them.
Themes
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Jared checks his phone and texts his mom a happy New Year. He also has 17 texts from Destiny, who assumed that he would stop by his dad’s place so that she could go out for a bit on New Year’s Eve. She calls Jared a selfish prick, and Jared texts her to say that he told her he wouldn’t babysit—he was worried that she would dump Ben on him and disappear.
The book continues to contrast Jared with Destiny, who blames Jared for not babysitting Ben so she could go out on New Year’s Eve. But Jared never made that kind of commitment, and he worried that she would shift all of her responsibility for Ben onto him, as she did before. This again speaks to the difference in maturity between Jared, whose home life has forced him to grow up quickly, and his peers.
Themes
George puts on a DVD, but Jared is too tired to pay attention. He thanks George for being his crash pad. George asks if Jared can call him Crashpad, and Jared agrees before heading out. Jared goes down to Dylan’s house and cracks the door open—the house is littered with empty bottles and food, and a couple of guys are passed out on the floor. Jared goes into Dylan’s room, where Dylan is throwing up into a trash can.
Jared isn’t the only one dealing with the ramifications of drinking too much—many of his high school peers use alcohol in order to escape their own realities. But they, too, only add to their problems (making messes and getting sick) as a result.
Themes
Jared apologizes to Dylan for being a jerk and says that Dylan can beat him up if he wants to. Dylan is perplexed, so Jared just offers to make him some coffee. Dylan throws up again while Jared gets apology texts from Destiny, and Jared thinks that he hates his life. He then checks his voicemail: Mrs. Jaks left him a message asking for help two days earlier. After the holiday parties, Jared can’t remember what he was doing two days earlier.
Jared uses alcohol to try to escape from the problems in his life and the responsibilities that he constantly takes upon himself. But when recovers from this drunken stupor, he still hates his life and must deal with the problems that existed before. This again implies that the best avenue to solve one’s problems is not to escape them with drugs and alcohol, but to confront them directly.
Themes
Jared and Dylan drink coffee together, and Jared gives Dylan a heads up that George made a video of the previous night. Hearing this, Dylan punches Jared in the face, spilling coffee over Jared’s freshly washed jacket. Dylan says that he’s going to kill George, but Jared assures him that George is going to take down the video. Jared asks if they’re all good, and Dylan responds that he’s too hungover to kill Jared.
Just as the book draws a contrast between Jared’s mom and Nana Sophia, it also contrasts Dylan and George. While Jared thinks that Dylan is his friend, Dylan poses a constant violent threat that makes their friendship painful and emotionally confusing, just like Jared’s relationship with his mom.
Themes
Later, Dylan drops off Jared at Mrs. Jaks’s house, which is under several feet of snow. Jared shovels a path from her porch to the road and knocks on the door, but there’s no answer, and he doesn’t want to wake Mrs. Jaks if she’s sleeping. Jared sits on the porch drinking a small bottle of vodka he stole from Dylan’s house. Jared’s mom doesn’t like how much he does for Mrs. Jaks, but after everything that happened with David, Jared feels he owes Mrs. Jaks—he even went to visit Mr. Jaks in respite care.
Here, the book again shows Jared’s two different sides. On the one hand, Jared is very responsible, as he helps Mrs. Jaks and visits Mr. Jaks in respite because he feels compelled to take care of the adults around him. On the other hand, Jared still uses alcohol to try to dull or escape from that same sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, the book again hints that Jared experienced a traumatic incident involving David, now implying that Mrs. Jaks helped him with that problem.
Themes
Wind and ice sting Jared’s face, and he decides to return home. In the kitchen, Jared’s mom compliments him sarcastically on his black eye, and Jared explains that Dylan was in a bad mood. His mom tells Jared that if Dylan keeps it up, he’s going to get “an ass full of buckshot,” though Jared isn’t thrilled about the idea of his mom doing this.
Jared’s mom’s threat of shooting Dylan with buckshot again shows how she views committing violence as a form of protection and love. But Jared’s hesitation suggests that he’s uncomfortable with violence as an expression of love.
Themes
Jared’s mom then makes macaroni and cheese for herself and Jared while smoking a cigarette, and she sarcastically toasts to a new year of dealing with the same problems. Jared remarks that she should write for Hallmark. When Jared’s mom retorts that he gets his smart mouth from his dad, Jared’s inner voice comments that Jared’s talent for self-destruction comes from his mom.
Jared’s inner voice critiques his mom’s inability to deal with her problems in a healthy way. Instead, she uses drugs and alcohol to emotionally numb herself, which Jared also struggles with. The voice reinforces the book’s suggestion that people should confront their problems directly, as avoiding them only allows those problems to harm—and even destroy—a person.
Themes
