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Part 1, Chapter 7: Secrets
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Magic, Cinema, and Imagination
Friendship, Honesty, and Vulnerability
Meaning and Purpose
Hardship and Maturity
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Hugo checks on the clocks and then walks to Georges’s toy shop. Georges puts him to work cleaning and making small repairs. As he works, Hugo’s mood shifts back and forth between optimistic and pessimistic. Sometimes he thinks he will get his notebook back, other times he doesn’t, which makes him angry. However, Hugo enjoys being surrounded by all sorts of mechanical objects. Even though he knows it’s wrong, he steals some of them when Georges isn’t looking.
Hugo’s life was already complicated enough, but now it is especially chaotic because he works two jobs. The work itself does not bother Hugo, but the idea that he is working for nothing is an issue. If the notebook is already gone, then Hugo is not working toward a goal. Instead, he is merely making up for what he’s lost.
Themes
While Hugo works, Georges plays with a deck of cards. Georges is incredibly gifted with the deck and knows how to do all sorts of tricks as he shuffles. Hugo is amazed that someone like Georges is so talented. One day, Hugo brings Georges his own deck of cards and asks Georges to teach him some tricks. At first, Georges tries to send Hugo away, but soon he gives in and shows Hugo a trick. However, he does not teach Hugo how to do it, and instead sends him back to work.
Georges’s talent with the deck of cards suggests that he was involved with magic at some point in his life. Assuming this is the case, then it could explain his relationship to the automaton. After all, as Hugo’s father said, magicians were responsible for creating many automatons. This scene creates a stark contrast between Georges and Hugo’s father. Hugo’s father was always eager to teach his son about what he was working on. Meanwhile, Georges does not want to satiate Hugo’s curiosity and instead sends him away.
Themes
Hugo spends the rest of the day thinking about Georges’s tricks, and he often watches Georges play with a deck of cards out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes, he feels like Georges is performing for him, even though he would never admit it. Later in the day, Georges takes a nap and the young girl Hugo talked to at the bookstore shows up. She knows Georges does not want her at the shop, so she quietly tells Hugo to come to the bookstore.
Hugo and Georges have a lot in common, even though neither will admit it to the other. Georges apparently knows a lot about magic, and Hugo aspires to be a magician. Meanwhile, the young girl’s actions continue to suggest that she is telling the truth about wanting to help Hugo; otherwise, she would not risk making Georges angry.
Themes
A few minutes later, Hugo goes to the bookstore. There, the young girl tells Hugo that she has been looking for his notebook but hasn’t found it yet. Hugo warns the girl that she cannot look in the notebook if she finds it. This comment prompts the girl to call him “mean.” Hugo doesn’t think he is mean, but he feels he must protect the notebook’s secrets. Eventually, the young girl promises not to look in the notebook, but she is not happy about it.
Just like with Georges, Hugo does not trust the young girl enough to allow her access to his secrets. To some degree, his reluctance is not unfair; after all, he still does not know the girl’s name. However, from the girl’s perspective, Hugo is being difficult for no reason. She’s not aware of the notebook’s emotional significance to Hugo.
Themes
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Moments later, a young man with an eyepatch enters the bookstore. The young girl recognizes him and greets him as “Etienne.” Etienne responds with, “Hello, Isabelle,” so Hugo finally has a name for his young friend. Isabelle introduces Hugo to Etienne and explains that Etienne works in a movie theater near her house. Apparently, Etienne helps Isabelle sneak into the movies because Georges won’t let her go. Hugo recalls going to the movies with his father to see a film where a man hangs from a large clock. He remembers loving spending time at the cinema with his father. Isabelle tells Hugo that the movie he is talking about is called Safety Last, which stars Harold Lloyd.
Movies are an important part of this story. and all of the films it mentions are real. Harold Lloyd is one of the biggest stars of early America cinema and was known for his comedic performances. The story references his most famous film here: Safety Last. Safety Last was especially memorable for Hugo because of his love for clocks, which he associates with his father. Like other technologies in the book, movies were a relatively new invention, which only came around at the very end of the 19th century.
Themes
Etienne tells Isabelle and Hugo to come by the movie theater next Tuesday so he can sneak them in. At first, Hugo is hesitant, but Isabelle convinces him it will be fun. Partially, he changes his mind because he remembers his father talking about how movies are “like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day.” Apparently, his father said this after watching a film where “he had seen a rocket fly right into the eye of the man in the moon.”
The relationship between movies and dreams is important, and the novel will examine it in greater depth as the story unfolds. The movies probably sound especially enticing to Hugo because he needs some new dreams to replace all of the terrible ones he is currently having.
Themes
Isabelle leaves and Etienne begins wandering around the bookstore. Hugo decides to look around as well; he enjoys being around the books and wants to see what he can find. Eventually something catches his eye: Practical Manual of Card Magic and Illusions. The book is full of magic tricks, including some of the card tricks Hugo saw Georges perform. Hugo looks to see if there is anything about automata, but unfortunately there isn’t.
Though he is not in school, Hugo remains a curious child with an interest in books. Even though the magic book doesn’t talk about automata, it still fascinates him. Georges may refuse to teach Hugo his tricks, but as it turns out, Hugo does not need Georges to learn.
Themes
Still, Hugo wants the book, so he slips it under his shirt and tries to sneak out of the shop unseen. Etienne catches him and asks him to show the book. Then, Etienne asks Hugo if he knows what is under his eye patch. Hugo guesses it is Etienne’s eye. Etienne tells him he lost his eye when he was younger and then pulls a coin out from under the eye patch. He gives it to Hugo and tells him to buy the book.
Hugo’s behavior suggests that he is getting troublingly accustomed to stealing. At this point, he is stealing simply because he wants something and not because he needs it. Luckily, Etienne catches Hugo and provides him with some much-needed guidance. Etienne is the first positive role model in Hugo’s life since his father’s death.
Themes
