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Morality, the Law, and Protest
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hoot, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
While Hoot’s main focus is on its young protagonists, it nevertheless offers readers glimpses into the role parents play in children’s lives. It’s possible to trace why Roy, Beatrice and Mullet Fingers, and Dana behave the way they do to how their parents support them (or don’t). The novel shows how present parenting prepares kids to tackle complex challenges while still giving them opportunities to be kids, while absent, neglectful, or abusive parenting fosters bad behavior and forces kids to grow up long before they’re ready. Mr. Eberhardt and Mrs. Eberhardt, Roy’s parents, are presented as ideal parents. When Roy gets into trouble, he trusts that his parents will still love and support him. Additionally, they coach Roy through learning to trust his gut and make good choices. Trusting his parents, and learning from them in this way, helps Roy become independent. But it also means that Roy is able to ask for help when he needs it and simply be a carefree kid a lot of the time.
In contrast, Hoot presents what Roy refers to as “shaky example[s] of motherhood” (and, it should be noted, fatherhood) in Beatrice, Mullet Fingers, and Dana’s parents. Dana, the school bully, experiences physical abuse from Mrs. Matherson and seems to bully timid Mr. Matherson just like he bullies his classmates. This, the novel suggests, has taught Dana to bully others to get his way—and when it comes to those he can’t intimidate, like his mother, to fight back violently. While the novel frames Dana as something of an absurd joke, Beatrice and Mullet Fingers’s family situation is far more tragic. Beatrice’s dad, Leon, married Mullet Fingers’s mom, Lonna, several years ago. And while Leon is totally checked out, Lonna is cruel and neglectful. Lonna has said outright that she doesn’t want her son anymore—so after sending him to several military academies from which Mullet Fingers ran away, she didn’t look for him when he ran away the last time. Thus, Mullet Fingers now lives on his own in Coconut Cove’s wild areas, supported by Beatrice. And Beatrice, in addition to parenting her stepbrother, is essentially a maid to the adults at home: Lonna forces her to perform all household chores, and Beatrice has been planning and cooking Leon’s meals for years. Due to their parents’ neglect, both Beatrice and Mullet Fingers are functionally adults, something Hoot frames as both tragic and damaging.
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Parenting and Support ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Parenting and Support appears in each chapter of Hoot. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Parenting and Support Quotes in Hoot
Below you will find the important quotes in Hoot related to the theme of Parenting and Support.
Chapter 7
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Beatrice Leep had laughed. “No, he’s not an Indian! I call him Mullet Fingers ’cause he can catch mullet with his bare hands. You know how hard that is?”
A mullet was a slippery, free-jumping baitfish that traveled in schools of hundreds. The bay near Coconut Cove was full of them in the spring. Throwing a cast net was the customary method of capture.
“Why doesn’t he live at home?” Roy had asked Beatrice.
“Long story. Plus, none of your business.”
“What about school?”
“My brother got shipped off to a ‘special’ school. He lasted two whole days before he ran away. Then he hitchhiked back, all the way from Mobile, Alabama.”
“What about your parents?”
“They don’t know he’s here, and I’m not gonna tell ’em. Nobody is gonna tell. You understand?”
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Chapter 11
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Roy stood rooted in the center of the road. He had an important decision to make, and quickly. From one direction came the police car; running in the other direction were his two friends...
Well, the closest things to friends that he had in Coconut Cove.
Roy drew a deep breath and dashed after them. He heard a honk, but he kept going, hoping that the police officer wouldn’t jump out and chase him on foot. Roy didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, but he wondered if he could get in trouble for helping Mullet Fingers, a fugitive from the school system.
The kid was only trying to take care of some owls—how could that possibly be a crime? Roy thought.
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Chapter 13
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“They’ve probably got all the necessary paperwork and permits.”
“They’ve got permits to bury owls?” Roy asked in disbelief.
“The owls will fly away. They’ll find new dens somewhere else.”
“What if they’ve got babies? How will the baby birds fly away?” Roy shot back angrily. “How, Dad?”
“I don’t know,” his father admitted.
“How would you and Mom like it,” Roy pressed on, “if a bunch of strangers showed up one day with bulldozers to flatten this house? And all they had to say was ‘Don’t worry, Mr. and Mrs. Eberhardt, it’s no big deal. Just pack up and move to another place.’ How would you feel about that?”
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Chapter 18
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“Dad wants my brother to come back and live with us again, but Lonna says no way, José, he’s a bad seed. What the heck does that mean, Tex? ‘Bad seed.’ Anyway, they’re still not speakin’ to each other, Lonna and my dad. The whole house feels like it’s about to explode.”
To Roy, Beatrice’s situation sounded like a living nightmare. “Need a place to hide out?” he asked.
“That’s okay. Dad says he feels better when I’m around.”
Chapter 21
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“Don’t be silly. I’m making a whole scrapbook, honey, something to show your children and grandchildren.”
I’d rather show them the owls, Roy thought, if there are any left by then.
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