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Part 2, Chapter 9: The Ghost in the Station
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 Station Inspector takes Hugo to his office and throws him in the cage Hugo always looks at while doing his rounds. Hugo is scared and doesn’t know what to do. He desperately wants Isabelle to show up and pick the cage’s lock. After some time, the Station Inspector returns along with two policemen, who plan to take Hugo to the police station. When the Station Inspector opens the cage door, Hugo seizes the moment and runs away, avoiding the grasp of anyone trying to catch him.
At this point, Hugo is desperate. He is more trouble than ever before, with no clear way out. Although he hopes Isabelle will show up, he also knows she would have no way to find him. Despite the presence of police officers, Hugo tries one last desperate attempt to get away, though it seems doomed to fail.
Themes
However, as Hugo dodges and weaves through the crowd, he accidentally trips and falls onto the train tracks. Even worse, a train is arriving at the station, and Hugo is directly in its path. The train gets closer and closer and almost manages to crush Hugo. However, just before it can, the Station Inspector grabs Hugo from the tracks and hands him over to the police. Hugo is too stressed out and in pain to deal with what comes next, so he blacks out.
As the name of the chapter suggests, the arrival of the train parallels famous Lumiere brothers movie A Train Arrives in the Station, which Hugo read about earlier in the story. Luckily, the Station Inspector turns out to be a hero, as he saves Hugo’s life just before the train can hit him.
Themes
When Hugo comes to, he sees stars and moons glowing brightly against a dark cloth. He realizes that he is looking at a cape that Georges is wearing. Hugo recognizes the cape from the armoire where he found Georges’s pictures, although at that time he thought it was only a sheet. Isabelle sees Hugo is awake, so she gives him a cup of water. She tells Hugo that she knew something must be wrong, which is why she and Georges rushed over to the station to find him.
The cape Georges is wearing comes from A Trip to the Moon, his most famous movie, which the novel repeatedly references. The presence of the cape suggests that Georges has regained something he lost. He once again is the playful man he was in his youth—the kind of person who would wear a cape. Any sense of bitterness in Georges has disappeared.
Themes
The Station Inspector asks Hugo to tell him everything he knows. Hugo explains that Claude is dead, and that he has been tending to the clocks by himself. At first, the Station Inspector does not believe Hugo, but then realizes he must be telling the truth when he finds out that Claude is, indeed, dead. When everything is settled, Georges tells the Station Inspector that Hugo is coming home with him. Hugo apologizes to Georges because he dropped the automaton. However, Georges says not to worry because, between the two of them, it shouldn’t take long to fix. Then, Georges, Isabelle, and Hugo walk to Georges’s apartment together. George wears the cape all the way home, and Hugo has a big smile on his face.
Hugo began unraveling the mystery of the automaton in an attempt to save family he had lost. However, he ends the story with a new family he didn’t know he needed. Although Hugo never entirely gets over his father’s death, he finds people to fill the hole that his father’s absence has left in his life. Throughout the story, Hugo meets several father figures, including Georges and Claude. Early in the story, it seems like Hugo may become more like Claude than Georges. He steals too much and only looks out for himself, because that is the only thing he knows how to do. However, Georges’s new outlook on life all but ensures Hugo will grow up as he and his father always hoped he would.
Themes
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