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Chapter 20
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
Ellie dreams she’s under a juniper tree with mesquite branches. She’s so thirsty, but the nearby riverbed is dry—and Trevor sits in it, buried up to his waist. He says the drought is “the consequence of greed.” He continues that Willowbee has taken all the water—and it'll take “everything” eventually, like a leech. Trevor brings up fairy rings, which he believes are abominations, “wormholes that slice through reality.” He recites part of a John Milton poem about how powerful fairies and humans’ dances used to be. But now, Trevor continues, he’d rather recite nursery rhymes with Gregory. He asks for Gregory and asks Ellie to help him and look at his back to see what “he” did to Trevor. Ellie wakes up to a pencil stabbing her in the back. She can barely remember the dream, but she knows Trevor warned her that “strange dances” are dangerous.
This dream incarnation of Trevor is, Ellie understands, dangerous: this is the piece of Trevor that wants to come back as a violent ghost. But this doesn’t mean this version of Trevor can’t speak truths. Willowbee is greedy and takes what it wants, regardless of who or what gets hurt in the process. He also as much as confirms that there’s something magical (and nefarious) about the town itself. Finally, as the novel has suggested throughout, Trevor suggests that there’s nothing more important than family. This is why he asks for Gregory: even in death, what matters most to Trevor are his wife and son.
Themes
