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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Elatsoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Friendship
Justice
Cultural Identity and Coming of Age
Colonialism and Monsters
Death, Grief, and Healing
Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
Jay begins streaming, narrating the video as they park along the street. So far, Ronnie is the only viewer. Like elsewhere in Willowbee, the grass is lush and dotted with mushrooms. Jay and Ellie approach the white building in a residential area. Ellie’s phone seems confused when she puts the address into her maps app, though it eventually says she’s reached her destination. They walk up the steps, and as Jay leans in to get a closer look at the leech engraved on the door, a woman—a patient, with a cast and a bruised face—bursts out. Ellie feels like she’s seen the woman before. Also, she didn’t expect the clinic to have actual patients.
The fact that Ellie’s phone struggles to understand that Ellie is, in fact, in Willowbee in front of the clinic is another sign that Willowbee perhaps isn’t a normal town. The leech imagery on the clinic’s door is interesting, as leeches are parasites that suck hosts’ blood. The image thus suggests that the clinic’s work is, in some way, parasitic, and that this is something Willowbee acknowledges in some capacity. The injured woman is interesting, as her injuries mirror those of the little girl whom Aunt Bell saw days ago.
Themes
Ellie and Jay go inside. The waiting room looks surprisingly normal, so Ellie asks for the restroom. The restroom also turns out to be very normal, so she returns to Jay, and they leave the building. They walk around to the parking lot in back, locate Allerton’s Mercedes, and then notice that the trash can is locked. The recycling bin isn’t, though, and it’s filled with beer cans. As Jay wonders if Dr. Allerton and the receptionist party after work, Ronnie texts that there’s someone watching them from a clinic window. Dr. Allerton himself comes out and threatens to call Ellie and Jay’s parents, as this is private property. When Ellie asks if he drinks at work, he gives her an odd look and accuses his neighbors of dumping—though he’s glad they’re recycling.
What Ellie and Jay find in the parking lot continues to not make a lot of sense. Dr. Allerton’s excuse that his neighbors dump their recyclables in his bin seems shaky at best—and the locked trash can raises the question of what might be inside that’s somehow more damning than a bunch of beer cans. And in a town that seems to go out of its way to look like an idyllic New England town, the sheer volume of beer cans suggests that not all is as perfect here as one might expect.
Themes
Studying his expensive watch, Dr. Allerton asks if Ellie and Jay will leave without a fuss and, amused, asks Jay if he’s filming. Then, he says he recognizes Ellie—and he uses her name, which Ellie never told him. He tries to offer her money, but Ellie refuses. Smiling, Dr. Allerton turns to go back inside, telling Ellie and Jay to check out the park or the library.
That Dr. Allerton uses Ellie’s name, despite not having learned it from Ellie herself, suggests that he knows more about Ellie (and possibly Jay) than he lets on here. That is, he knows they’re not just random kids—but what he knows, and how much, remains a mystery.
Themes
