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Chapter 7
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
True to his word, Roy stops looking for Mullet Fingers. The rain keeps him inside anyway and, given the immense damage Beatrice did to Roy’s bike tire, his bike is unusable until a new tire arrives. On Thursday, when Mrs. Eberhardt picks Roy up, she excitedly reveals that Miss Hennepin has lifted Roy’s bus suspension. Roy is far less thrilled and suspects his mom just wants to get back to her morning yoga classes. But he knows he’ll have to face Dana sometime—tomorrow might as well be the day.
Despite the brave face Roy has put on thus far, he reveals here that just like his classmates, he is afraid of Dana. He sees his parents—his mom in particular—as a convenient, safe buffer to protect him from the bully. But ultimately, Roy knows he has to do what he can to push back against Dana’s cruelty, and he also seems aware that no adult will help to do so.
Themes
Curly is under a lot of stress. It’s hard work supervising a construction site when work is two weeks behind, and he’s certain he’ll be fired if anything else happens. Chuck Muckle, the Vice President for Corporate Relations, said as much. When Muckle called Curly, he refused to talk reasonably (what pancake lover is going to care about the gators, anyway?) and told Curly to hire guard dogs. There can be no more delays, since actress Kimberly Lou Dixon, a former Miss America contestant who portrays Mother Paula in commercials, is booked for a big movie—Mutant Invaders from Jupiter Seven—and has a short window of time to attend the Mother Paula’s groundbreaking ceremony before filming starts.
Here, the novel offers insight into the pressure Curly is under to keep things moving along smoothly. The threat to fire Curly is, essentially, a threat to take away Curly’s livelihood—he depends on his paycheck to live, after all. This creates a lot of incentive for Curly to do as Muckle asks. Further, Muckle implies that he really doesn’t care much about Curly himself. His focus is on his business and on making sure everything runs smoothly. And this means making sure that Kimberly Lou Dixon can be there for the groundbreaking.
Themes
Curly finds a company willing to install a chain-link fence in the rain and then hires a guard dog trainer. Finally, at 4:30 p.m., a red truck pulls up and the beefy, mustached driver introduces himself as Kalo, the trainer. In a heavy German accent, Kalo tells Curly to go home and to not interact at all with the dogs. Curly waits outside the fence while Kalo lets out four big, snarling Rottweilers. At a command in German, they all sit. Kalo says their names are Max, Klaus, Karl, and Pookie Face. Curly heads to his truck, relieved—nobody is going to mess with those dogs.
Symbolically, bringing in big, snarling Rottweilers makes Curly—and the Mother Paula’s corporation he represents—look strong, mean, and powerful. That one of the dogs is named Pookie Face, though, is a humorous suggestion that the dogs are perhaps not as intimidating as Curly would like to think. The vandal, perhaps, will find a way to get the better of these dogs.
Themes
It’s not raining the next morning, so Roy walks to the bus stop. He notices some ospreys nesting on a utility pole, mullet skeletons littering the ground below them. There were ospreys in Montana, too—maybe if the birds can live in such different environments, Roy can figure it out, too. Roy boards the bus and kids immediately move away from him. As expected, Dana appears behind Roy. There’s a new injury on Dana’s lip; maybe Mrs. Matherson hit him. In any case, Dana has a lisp now and he tells Roy they have business to settle.
Roy is beginning to feel a bit more at home in Florida—or, at least, he’s willing to entertain the possibility that it might be a good idea to put more effort into being happy here. It’s significant that the ospreys are what cause Roy to think this, as this shows how the natural world can provide Roy a framework as he thinks about where he belongs. The new injury on Dana’s lip offers more possible evidence that Dana’s home life isn’t as safe and pleasant as one might hope: he may bully others because he suffers violence at home.
Themes
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Roy is done playing, and he’s had lots of experience with bullies like Dana. He slaps Dana’s hand away and calmly tells Dana to hit him. Once Dana does, Roy turns back to his comic book. Dana slaps Roy off his seat and then continues to pummel the smaller boy. The bus driver doesn’t notice, but to Roy’s surprise, Dana stops hitting him after the driver makes another stop. Roy finally looks up at Beatrice and greets her.
Things start to change for the better for Roy now that he and Beatrice have come to a truce of sorts—they may be on their way to being friends. And Roy must turn to friends or peers when it comes to Dana, as the bus driver is clearly not going to intervene. It’s not evident, though, whether the bus driver legitimately doesn’t notice, or if he’s ignoring Dana and maybe fears the boy, too.
Themes
