Escapism and Confronting Problems Theme Analysis

Jared is a troubled teen with a host of problems: his mom and her violent boyfriends abuse and neglect him, and he also begins to experience distressing and confusing visions of magical beings. None of the issues that plague him are within his control, and this lack of control over his own life leads him to self-destructive forms of escapism. He tries to numb himself from his practical, everyday problems through alcohol and drugs, and he also tries to avoid the magical beings that plague him by telling himself that he’s hallucinating or going crazy. But neither of these strategies work—his drug use only makes him more miserable and less in control of his life, and trying to ignore magic only makes things worse and puts him and his loved ones in greater danger. With this, Son of a Trickster suggests that trying to escape from or ignore one’s problems isn’t effective and often causes more harm in the long run—instead, it’s better to confront problems head-on.

Jared, as well as his mom and dad, use drugs and alcohol as a way of numbing themselves from their interpersonal problems—but, in reality, this only makes their problems worse. When Jared’s father moves out and his parents get divorced, his mother has to sell most of their things to cover the cost of the house. Around the same time, Jared starts hanging out with some of the rebellious kids in school, “so he [can] lose himself in gaming and stolen booze” as well as get high. Even at a young age, Jared starts to use alcohol as a coping mechanism for some of the hardships in his life. Yet, as a result, he gets into fights, gets sick and vomits, and gets drunk and high so often that he doesn’t remember entire days of his life. This suggests that in trying to stave off some of the sadness in his life, he is actually making his life worse—or even wasting it away. Additionally, Jared’s mom is a drug addict, and when she becomes angry with Jared, she abandons him and disappears for months to do drugs. In this way, the drugs (which are meant to help his mom escape from her anger at Jared) only put Jared’s mother completely out of control and worsen their relationship. Jared’s father, meanwhile, experiences a back injury and becomes addicted to his pain medications. As a result, he becomes absent from Jared’s life and has to be hospitalized to deal with his withdrawal, while Jared uses his own money (which he earns by selling marijuana cookies) to get his dad out of debt. As with Jared’s mom, Jared’s dad’s addiction takes complete control of his life, to the detriment of his whole family.

Just as Jared and his loved ones try to escape from their everyday problems, Jared also tries to ignore the frightening magical beings that being appearing to him—but ignoring the magical realm he’s tapped into only makes it more dangerous and out of his control. Jared sometimes sees visions of the Trickster raven Wee’git, who says that he is Jared’s real father, or prehistoric ape men walking around. But he tries to rationalize these visions by attributing to the drugs he takes. Toward the end of the book, however, talking river otters begin to threaten Jared. When Jared finally tells his mom about his visions and the otters, she admits that magic is real and that she is a witch, and she tries to place protective spells on the house to head them off. However, these actions come too late, and the otters kidnap Jared and bite off his toe, threatening to eat the rest of him. This sequence suggests that if Jared had been more open or willing to confront his problems, it’s possible that his mother could have helped him avoid this fate. Simply dismissing magic, on the other hand, has resulted in painful and permanent consequences. After Jared returns from the cave with the river otters, he and his girlfriend Sarah hang out together. When Sarah and Jared have sex, magical fireflies swarm above them and little pieces of their bodies spiral away from their skin. Even though this makes Sarah feel “alive,” Jared is terrified and immediately goes home. Because Jared is too afraid to engage with magic or talk to Sarah about his feelings, Sarah cuts herself with a knife to try to recreate the feeling and is placed in psychiatric care. This suggests that although the magic in the novel can be dangerous, trying to escape from it rather than confronting it leads to greater harm. And, in this way, the book implies that avoiding reality (even a magical reality) isn’t an effective way of dealing with scary or difficult aspects of life.

At the book’s conclusion, Jared is only able to take control of his life and improve himself when he decides to stop running from his problems. Jared begins to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and as a result, he begins to take pride in himself and make an effort in areas of his life that he previously neglected. He starts doing his schoolwork again, and he gets a job at a Dairy Queen so he can make money legally. His positive experience with sobriety suggests that although people often drink take drugs as a way to feel in control of their lives, in reality, substance abuse only pushes people (like his mother) further out of control as they become beholden to their addiction. Jared also comes to terms with the fact that his mom and Sarah are witches, and that Wee’git, and not Phil, is his real father. Even though this is painful for Jared, confronting his problems directly helps him understand his identity and family history more fully, rather than simply brushing off the odd things around him as hallucinations. Son of a Trickster doesn’t neatly resolve Jared’s problems—by its end, Jared still largely lacks control over his home life, and he’s reluctant to actively involve himself in magic. However, the book portrays his sobriety and his progress toward self-acceptance and away from escapism as steps in the right direction.