Previous
Chapter 22
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
Later that morning, Mrs. Dando comes on her bicycle to tell Michael that his friends miss him at school. Dad shows Mrs. Dando how the house is improving. Mrs. Dando gives Dad a teddy bear for the baby and a folder of homework for Michael. Later, Michael takes his homework over to Mina’s, where she and Mrs. McKee are sitting on a blanket in the yard. Mina scoffs at Michael’s fill-in-the-blank worksheets on evolution. When she looks at his book for “confident readers,” she asks rhetorically whether William Blake is for good or bad readers. Michael wants to go home.
Michael and Mina have become very close; on many matters, such as the perception of Skellig, Michael once worried that he and Mina would have different opinions, only to later find that the two of them were in sync. In this scene, Michael strains to understand how he and Mina can think differently without having a falling out. Michael clearly does not agree with Mina that school is useless and limiting. This difference of opinion now poses a new challenge in their developing friendship.
Themes
Mrs. McKee chastises Mina gently. Soon, she goes inside, encouraging Michael to stand up to Mina. After reading for a while, Michael asks Mina about the private diary she is writing. He thinks about the diaries he is assigned in school, and how his teacher reads them to check for grammar. Michael feels tears in his eyes and thinks about the baby. Mina takes Michael’s hand and apologizes for being sarcastic; she says how excited she is to visit Skellig again.
Michael feels alienated in this scene—something he hasn’t felt much of since befriending Mina. When he acknowledges the difference in his and Mina’s diaries, he feels this alienation. This is clear because his feeling leads to thoughts of the baby, whose situation has often made Michael feel alienated from others.
Themes
