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Part 2, Chapter 3: The Plan
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
Nervously, Hugo makes his way out of the train station and heads to the metro station. He waits among a crowd of people for the metro to arrive. When it does, Hugo boards, sits down, and clutches his injured hand. Before long, he is at his destination. He runs off the metro and up to the streets of Paris. Once he gets his bearings, he makes his way to a building with the words “Académie du Cinéma Français” engraved on it.
Any time Hugo leaves the train station, it is a nerve-wracking experience. He does not have anyone to look out for him, and so he must navigate Paris by himself. His willingness to go anyway demonstrates that he is both brave and determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Themes
Hugo enters the building and a woman at a desk immediately turns him away because he is too young and dirty. Hugo realizes the woman is right; he hasn’t thought about his appearance in a long time, but he knows it must be off-putting. However, before he can leave, he hears someone calling his name. He turns around and sees Etienne. Etienne vouches for Hugo and so the woman at the desk lets him in.
The story rarely describes Hugo’s appearance, but, as the woman’s behavior suggests, he is not well groomed and probably has not had a real bath in months. Bathing is just one of many comforts Hugo no longer enjoys due to his difficult circumstances. However, he does not let it bother him; it only comes to his attention when somebody else mentions it.
Themes
Hugo apologizes to Etienne because he feels responsible for making him lose his job. In response, Etienne says it worked out for the best because he got a job at the Film Academy where he is studying to become a cameraman. Hugo explains why he has come to the Film Academy, and Etienne takes him upstairs to the library. In the library, Etienne helps Hugo find a book called The Invention of Dreams: The Story of the First Movies Ever Made.
Etienne is a great friend to Hugo because he is willing to help him even though they barely know each other. He continues to be the best role model for Hugo in the story after the passing of Hugo’s father. Although there are many books on the early history of film, Selznick made this one up for the purposes of the story.
Themes
In the book, Hugo reads about a movie called A Train Arrives in the Station. As its title suggests, the entire movie is simply a train arriving at a station. However, the book says that people screamed when they first watched the film because they had never seen anything like it and thought the train was going to come through the screen and hit them.
Although it is a real film, the story of A Train Arrives in the Station’s first screening is a popular urban legend. Audiences did not really scream when they saw the film. However, it was a sensation when it first released, as were many other early films.
Themes
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Hugo continues flipping through the book and eventually finds the image of the man in the moon with a rocket in his eye. It looks exactly like the picture the automaton drew. Following the picture is a description of Georges Méliès’s contribution to the history of film. Georges started as a magician and brought his magic tricks to the screen. He was the first person to figure out how to make something look like it disappeared in a movie. However, at the end of the description on Georges, it says he died after World War I. Confused, Hugo tells Etienne that Georges is still alive and operates a toy stand at the train station. At first, Etienne laughs, but Hugo assures him it is true, and that Georges is Isabelle’s godfather.
The movie Hugo sees—which has appeared throughout the novel—is Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon, one of the most important films in the history of cinema. Méliès is among the first people to turn films into actual narrative, and A Trip to the Moon is his most famous work. The film released in 1902, and although it was only about 14 minutes long, it was considered incredibly impressive. Not only was it long for a film of its time, but it also made use of innovative editing techniques that Méliès developed from his time as a magician. Even though Hugo does not yet know the full impact of Méliès’s work, he knows his discovery is much more significant than he could have ever imagined.
Themes
