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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blueback, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Belonging, and Conservation
Family and Love
Greed and Environmental Destruction
The Ocean and Life’s Mysteries
Time, Change, and Continuity
Summary
Analysis
While Abel is in high school, every time he leaves Longboat Bay for a new semester he feels like he takes a deep breath and can’t let it go until he returns home again.
Abel feels like he can only breathe easily when he’s home, the place where he feels he best belongs. In other words, Abel feels that he needs to be close to nature and his family just as much as he needs to breathe air to survive.
Themes
Meanwhile, land developers come to Longboat Bay. They want to build a resort for wealthy tourists on the Jacksons’ land. The developers view Abel’s home as a wellspring of money for them. Dora refuses to sell her land to the developers, even though they send her increasingly expensive gifts to try to persuade her. Then, suspicious inconveniences start to spring up: potholes in the road, missing mail, and strange forest fires.
The greedy land developers don’t value nature for what it is. Instead, they wish to destroy it for their own profit, which showcases how human greed harms nature. Moreover, the developers’ greed drives them to use cruel and immoral means to try to get what they want. They’re almost certainly responsible for the many “accidents” that are meant to frighten and coerce Dora into selling her land. Yet, by resisting the developers’ tricks, Dora steadfastly protects her home to preserve Longboat Bay. In this way, she gives back to her home.
Themes
Abel feels angry for his mother that these businessmen are bothering her. He’s also frustrated that the men can’t see that Longboat Bay is a place but also a life, friend, and husband to Dora. Abel understands now that his mother’s love for the sea, her home, and her husband’s memory keeps her strong and prevents her from being lonely. Abel’s love for his mother helps him get through high school too. After five years, Dora wins her fight against the developers through quiet, patient determination. Eventually, the developers give up.
Abel feels strongly protective of his mother and Longboat Bay because of his love for them. He doesn’t want his home to be exploited by greedy businessmen. To Abel, nature isn’t a mere backdrop against which he lives his life. Rather, nature is an essential, beloved member of his family. Longboat Bay supports Abel and his mother emotionally as well as physically. Ultimately, Dora’s love for her home wins out against the developers’ greed, illustrating the power of love. From observing his mother, Abel recognizes the power of love himself, realizing that it can strengthen him just as it strengthens Dora.
Themes
