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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Skellig, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Weakness, Strength, and Hardship
Curiosity, Nature, and Transformation
Love, Empathy, and Caregiving
Imagination, Magic, and Faith
Summary
Analysis
The next day at noon, Michael finds Mina drawing skeletons on a blanket in her yard. When Michael asks if Mina is doing science homework, Mina laughs and says she is “opening her mind.” Picking up a book, Mina reads aloud a William Blake poem about how school takes away joy. Michael sits down on Mina’s blanket, and Mina tells him to listen. When Michael says that he hears traffic and his own breath, Mina tells him to listen deeper to the sound coming from inside the tree. Michael concentrates on the tree until he hears a faint squeaking: the chicks!
Michael and Mina’s respective ideas of “homework” are very different. Implicit in Michael’s question is the idea of homework as an activity that requires looking down at a piece of paper and filling in answers in a way that has nothing to do with meaningful learning. Mina’s idea of homework involves experiencing the very things she is learning about. Mina “learns” by listening, and she gains knowledge by listening deeper.
Themes
Mina picks up a small bone and breaks it in two, showing Michael a network of fibers inside; she explains that this is called pneumatization and that birds evolved this way so they could be light enough to fly. Mina asks about the baby, and Michael says he thinks she’ll be okay. Mina makes the owl call. Michael asks Mina if she made the owl call last night; Mina says she can’t be certain because she often sleepwalks. Mina says that last night, she dreamed Michael was standing in the yard covered with cobwebs. Dad calls. Promising to show Mina his secret that afternoon, Michael leaves.
Michael and Mina’s conversation leads in and out of science, the baby's health, and recollection of dreams and reality. This interwoven, free-moving conversations suggests that there is a connection between all these topics. For instance, the fact that Mina makes the owl call right after Michael says that he thinks the baby will be okay suggests that Mina is calling to the baby the way the owls call to their chicks when they are flying to the nests to feed them.
Themes
