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Chapter 21
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
That night, Michael dreams that he and the baby are nestled in the blackbird’s nest. The blackbird calls from the roof while Dr. Death and Dr. MacNabola brandish saws and syringes, taunting the baby when she tries to fly.
Michael wakes to Mina’s owl call and tiptoes outside. They ask each other if they are dreaming but decide that it makes no difference. While the blackbird sings on the roof, Michael and Mina go into the garage. The creature protests when they try to move him, saying he is as weak as a baby. Mina says that babies aren’t weak and describes the way chicks dare to fly for the first time. The creature says he is scared, and Mina kisses his cheek. Michael and Mina wrap their arms around the creature, and he slowly rises to his feet.
Through the analogy of birds, Mina reinterprets what it means to be a baby. The word baby usually connotes weakness, but in nature, birds undergo a remarkable transformation from babyhood into free-flying adulthood, suggesting that a baby is only a person who has not yet gained the strength they will one day possess. In this way, nature acts a lens through which to see the potential in the human world—and therefore to have hope in it.
Themes
Michael, Mina, and the creature walk slowly out of the garage. In the dawn light, the creature, although filthy, looks young rather than old. Michael wonders if he is dreaming; he takes the creature’s shoulders and Mina takes his feet, and they carry him to the house with the “Danger” door. Once inside, Michael and Mina lay the creature on the first floor with Mina’s sweater as a pillow. They promise to return with 27 and 53. When Mina asks the creature who he is, the creature says his name is Skellig. Michael and Mina smile at each other in awe and then hurry home.
In this scene, the creature transforms so vastly that it seems magical. Before, Michael and Mina associated the creature with death and age, but now he looks young, as if he has suddenly passed through the stage of life to the stage of birth. Adding to this, the creature suddenly either remembers or realizes his name. In this way, Skellig’s improving health appears as a rebirth and suggests that death is not an end but rather a new beginning.
Themes
