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 up in a muddy cave with his ankles and wrists bound and tape over his mouth. His head aches, and he realizes that his gun is gone. In that moment, he remembers that the real Sarah would never have called him from the Jakses’ landline. Jared shakes from the cold, and a sharp bone pricks his hand. He feels around for it and uses it to cut himself out of the duct tape on his wrists, then the tape around his head and ankles.
Here, Jared starts to face the consequences of ignoring the magical occurrences in his life, as he winds up bound and gagged in a muddy cave. The book suggests that had he consulted his mother earlier, he might not be facing these dire consequences, because his mom could have protected him.
Themes
Tucking the sharp bone in his belt, Jared crawls around in the darkness, trying to follow the sound of a nearby river. He touches tons of bones—of cats, dogs, and even humans. The tunnel he’s crawling along narrows, until he slides into a small pool. He pulls himself out, but he can’t see anything. He hears a woman’s voice calling him a tasty little worm that can lure in some fish. Then, suddenly, he hears things moving toward him. Hands grip him, and teeth sink into his side. He grabs the sharp bone and stabs out randomly, fighting until the bodies weigh him down and he weeps and bleeds.
The voice talking about Jared as a tasty little worm who can catch fish implies that the otters are trying to use Jared as bait. Thus, not only has Jared endangered himself—subjecting himself to this torture—by putting off accepting the magic in his life, but he has also potentially endangered people he cares about. This again reinforces the danger in avoiding one’s problems instead of trying to confront them directly.
Themes
Suddenly, a lighter flicks on, and Jared can see creatures that are part human, part otters. Fake Sarah lights a torch nearby, and the otters keep a tight grip on Jared and lift his left foot. One of them licks his baby toe and bares its teeth, and Jared begs them to stop. Ignoring him, the otter rips through his skin and gnaws his toe off as Jared screams. Fake Sarah then takes the lighter and runs it over the raw flesh. Jared wants to pass out or die, convulsing as his skin roasts until Fake Sarah stops.
The fact that Jared loses a toe to the river otters goes even further than hinting at the danger of avoiding one’s problems: it explicitly demonstrates the painful and permanent consequences of doing so.
Themes
Fake Sarah says that Jared has disappointed them—they thought he had power, but he doesn’t taste powerful. He’s still useful, though, and Jared realizes that they’re going to try to lure his mom to them. He tries to tell them that she won’t come for him, and they ask if they should just eat him now. Jared tries to stall by bringing up the Anthropocene. The otters murmur, saying that the world is burning—humans are taking all the fish, and so humans are the only thing left to eat. Jared tries to distract them by telling them that they should get the factory animals to join their cause. They realize that Jared is just trying to stall, so Fake Sarah orders the otters to bite off all his fingers and toes.
The topic of the Anthropocene comes up once again, as the otters point out that humans are the cause of mass environmental destruction. This angers creatures in both the natural world and in the magical realm where Jared now finds himself. The fact that the otters go after Jared in revenge—even though Jared himself may not have done anything to hurt them—suggests that all people are complicit in environmental destruction, and that this destruction will ultimately cause humanity’s own downfall.
Themes
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Suddenly, time stops, and the otters freeze. A voice in Jared’s head says, “Hello, son.” Jared frees himself from the otter-humans and falls to the cave floor, vomiting. He crawls away toward the entrance of the cave and finds himself on a riverbank. Jared calls out, and the voice says that he’s accelerated them in a temporal pocket, but Jared needs to come closer. Jared sees an old, dark car parked nearby and goes toward it, but the voice says to look up, and he sees a raven—Wee’git—in a tree. Jared briefly sees himself through Wee’git’s eyes before shifting back into his own head, and he tells Wee’git not to do that.
In this moment, Jared’s inner voice finally confirms that he is Wee’git, and that Jared is his son. With this revelation, the book again suggests that if Jared had been more open to understanding his inner voice, or to engaging with Wee’git during one of the many times that he approached Jared, Jared might not have wound up in such grave danger.
Themes
Wee’git explains that Jared needs to shift out of his form and fly away, but Jared insists that he doesn’t have magic. Jared gets into the car and feels himself getting colder and more tired—his adrenaline is wearing off, and he’s still bleeding badly. When Jared asks Wee’git why he came, Wee’git says that he’s here to save Jared.
Jared’s lack of acceptance has not only left him in the dark about his identity up to this point, but it has also prevented him from protecting himself. Whereas Jared and his mother doesn’t believe that Jared has any magical ability, Wee’git’s assurance that Jared can transform into something else suggests that Jared could have taken advantage of his power if he had been more open to it.
Themes
When Jared asks Wee’git if he’s been listening and watching him all this time, Wee’git tries to tell Jared that there isn’t much time and that they have to leave, but Jared refuses. Jared points out that the voice called him son, but Phil is his dad. The voice explains that a DNA test wouldn’t pick up the truth. Jared asks how long Wee’git has been watching him, and Wee’git says that he’s been watching since Jared’s first act of magic—when Jared shifted out of body.
Wee’git brings up another moment in which Jared denied his magical ability to his detriment. After popping out of his body, Jared believed that he was in a dream. But had he understood his magical capabilities in that moment, he might have been able to harness that power and avoid being captured by the river otters. This again reinforces the importance of facing one’s problems in order to overcome them.
Themes
Wee’git shows Jared a vision of himself holding Mrs. Jaks’s hand as he walked to the ambulance. Jared gets angry, asking Wee’git sarcastically if he had a good time watching the worst moment of his life and doing nothing. Jared asks where he was all this time, if he is Jared’s father. The voice says that he’s been dead—Jared’s mom killed him. Jared realizes that Wee’git has only shown up now because Jared has magic—if he were just human, it wouldn’t be worth it. Wee’git says that Jared is displacing his anger with David, particularly because Wee’git is there trying to help Jared.
This backstory adds another dimension to why Jared has had to take on such responsibility in his life. Not only was Phil an absent father, but so was Wee’git. Jared’s criticism shows that Wee’git hasn’t been fully responsible, because he didn’t care about Jared before he showed magical capability. As a result, Jared was navigating the world with no support, and as a result, he had shoulder more responsibility than other kids his age.
Themes
Wee’git tells Jared that he can do and be anything he wants to be. Jared disagrees, saying that he’s human and that he can’t do anything magical. He’d rather be “otter chow” than stay with Wee’git. Wee’git tries to reason with Jared, but time is running out—the river starts to flow again, and the otter people start to stream out of the cage.
Even as Jared is dealing with the repercussions of ignoring the magic in his life, he still struggles to accept this part of himself. Jared’s statement that he would rather be “otter chow,” as well as his choice to avoid Wee’git, demonstrate that he still has a long way to go to accept his problems rather than run away from them.
Themes
The otter people shove Jared out of the way, intent on getting to Wee’git. When Jared looks up, Wee’git has transformed into an otter, and the otters bite and claw at one another as they try to figure out which one of them is Wee’git. Wee’git tells Jared to run, and Jared limps down the logging road. Just then, ape men start loping toward him, and Jared sees his mom’s truck approach. Jared’s mom hops out of the passenger side and lobs grenades toward the river where the otters are, and then she helps Jared to the truck. She vows to get revenge on the river otters.
Although Jared is critical of Wee’git’s absence from his life, Wee’git still tries to protect him and even sacrifices himself. This expression of love is somewhat similar to the way that Jared’s mom tries to protect him with violence.
Themes
