Previous
Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hoot, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conservation and the Natural World
Bullying and Corruption
Morality, the Law, and Protest
Parenting and Support
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
It’s just after dusk at the construction site, and Officer Delinko admits to Curly that he’s worried about the owls. Curly maintains that there are no owls—and he suggests Delinko stop thinking about it. That’s how he manages. He shares that the pancake company knows, but there’s nothing they can do and it’s not their problem anyway. For the next few hours, Delinko patrols the property and checks the burrows for owls. He sees none; hopefully they’ve all left. After midnight, Curly calls for Delinko and says he heard someone climb the fence. Delinko finds nothing and no one on the property, but he does see what looks like camera flashes. He figures it’s just heat lightning.
Curly won’t say it in so many words, but both he and Mother Paula’s know that there are owls on the property and that they’re doing something illegal by pushing the construction project forward. When Curly insists there’s nothing he and Delinko can do, it casts him as Roy’s exact opposite: Roy remains hopeful, while Curly has given up (and perhaps is simply prioritizing his paycheck over the owls). It’s unclear at this point if Delinko is purposefully not finding whoever climbed the fence and writing off the camera flashes as heat lightning—if Delinko is doing these things on purpose, it suggests that Curly is wrong, and it is possible for Delinko to do something to stop the construction project. In this case, that seems to be letting Mullet Fingers onto the property to get photos of the owls.
Themes
At breakfast the next morning, Roy asks Mrs. Eberhardt if he can leave school and attend the Mother Paula’s groundbreaking at lunch. To his surprise, she refuses and says they can ask Mr. Eberhardt—Roy figures he’s not going. But Mr. Eberhardt says yes, so long as Roy behaves. He drives his son and Roy’s bike to school, warning Roy to be safe and smart. When Roy meets up with Beatrice, she also got a note. She offers Roy Mrs. Eberhardt’s camera, which Mullet Fingers dropped off late last night. He said he got the pictures, but the camera was too complicated for Beatrice to check. Roy is ecstatic—this might actually work.
Roy clearly expected his mom to be easily swayed and his dad to be the opposite. However, Mr. Eberhardt shows Roy through his support for Roy’s protest that he wants his son to learn how to legally, effectively, and safely protest. This means following the rules (like getting a note to leave school). Notably, Mr. Eberhardt allows Roy a lot of independence in this passage; Roy clearly plans to bike to the protest rather than have a parent drive him, for instance. Thanks to his parents’ support, Roy feels comfortable doing this—and in guiding Beatrice, it seems, to do the same.
Themes
At 10:45, a limousine pulls up at East Oriole and Woodbury. A tall, well-dressed man with silver hair and sunglasses gets out and snaps his fingers at Officer Delinko, who doesn’t notice. Delinko is just ready to go home; he’s been here for 14 hours, since he stayed while Curly went home to shower. He has no interest in being here for the ceremony, but when the man finally speaks to Delinko, Delinko walks over. The man introduces himself as Chuck E. Muckle, a vice president of something at Mother Paula’s, and says he needs assistance. Delinko offers to call for another unit, but Muckle says Kimberly Lou Dixon is in the limo. He explains to Delinko exactly who Miss Dixon is and says she urgently needs a bathroom. Officer Delinko gestures toward Curly’s trailer.
Delinko appears physically and emotionally drained. Whether he purposefully wrote things off last night or not, he now seems to agree with Curly that he can’t do anything to help the owls this late in the game. Curly, for his part, seems totally happy to be complicit (and keep his job), given that he's gone home to freshen up for the ceremony. Muckle’s first appearance in the flesh gives the impression that he thinks of himself as all-powerful, and he clearly likes to lord that power over others. He shows Delinko next to no respect and seems not to care that Delinko spent all night surveilling Muckle’s own property.
Themes
Kimberly Lou Dixon gets out of the limo. Officer Delinko is struck by how young and beautiful she is—but then she opens her mouth to announce she’s “gotta tinkle,” and her voice is sandpapery. When Curly opens the door of his trailer, he’s dumbstruck. Dixon brushes past him as Officer Delinko explains what’s going on. The dreamy look on Curly’s face disappears as Chuck Muckle appears in the doorway. Muckle refuses to shake Curly’s hand and confirms that everything is ready for the event. Curly says he and Delinko have been watching the property day and night since Sunday, though he also reveals that Delinko is the officer who fell asleep. Delinko apologizes, annoyed, and Curly says that Delinko is the one who helped him catch the vandal the other night.
Muckle continues to lord his power over people whom he considers inferior. Even though Curly and Delinko have been working hard to lock down the construction site (something that benefits Muckle more than it really helps Curly or Delinko), Muckle continues to write off their sacrifices and even refuses to show Curly any respect or acknowledgement, as by shaking his hand. This further establishes Muckle as a person who cares about profit over anything (or anyone) else—including the owls.
Themes
Get the entire Hoot LitChart as a printable PDF.
Before Officer Delinko can share what actually happened when he caught Dana, Kimberly Lou Dixon hurtles out of the bathroom, shouting about all the roaches. Curly says they’re crickets; he’s not sure where they came from. He introduces himself to Miss Dixon and says he’s seen all her movies and is excited to see her next one. She pats him on the head—she’s only been in two movies—and says she’s working on her Oscar speech for the next one. Glancing at her watch, she asks one of the men to fetch her suitcase so she can get into her Mother Paula getup.
The crickets, presumably, came from Roy the other night. While the narrative plays this moment mostly for the humor, that the crickets are causing mayhem indicates that Roy does have the power to at least annoy adults who otherwise seem extremely powerful. And as with Curly, Dixon’s scared reaction to the crickets suggests that she’s not going to be sympathetic to the owls’ plight, as she’s frightened of the natural world.
Themes
