A Tangle of Knots

“Somehow, for some reason that Cady couldn’t explain, the fault lay with her. And Cady vowed that if she ever got another chance, with another family, she would do whatever it took to make it work. One day she would have an Adoption Day party of her own. One day she would bake the perfect cake for herself.”

This passage develops the protagonist’s characterization and the theme of Family Connections. The lonely, people-pleasing Cady dreams of being adopted at the start of the story and feels that “the fault lay with her” for not finding a perfect family yet. For much of the novel, Cady feels that she must prioritize others’ happiness over her own so that she can merit a family. In time, she learns to value her own needs and desires.

“Day in and day out, the only constant Miss Mallory had come to count on was Cady.”

This excerpt develops the theme of Family Connections by illustrating the protagonist’s great importance to Miss Mallory. This appears at a bittersweet moment when Miss Mallory thinks that the girl’s perfect family is on their way to adopt her. Eventually, Miss Mallory and Cady realize that they are also meant to be a family.

“‘But with you’—Cady closed her eyes—‘for some reason it’s a little harder.’ Toby shifted in his seat. ‘Well, I…’ Cady popped her eyes open. ‘I guess I’ll just have to think on it some more,’ she said. And the way her face lit up, she looked a bit like a baby bird who’d just discovered there was sunlight in the world.”

One of Cady and Toby’s first interactions develops the themes of Family Connections and Identity and Self-Discovery. The great happiness they bring one another and her desire to understand him help to establish that they are meant to be a family. The simile comparing the protagonist to “a baby bird who’d just discovered there was sunlight in the world” demonstrates her great joy now that she believes she is going to be adopted at last. The unusual difficulty that Cady has in determining Toby’s perfect cake offers a clue that he conceals his true identity.

“‘That is why you came, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘To adopt Cady?’ Toby felt the oddest sensation then, as though every emotion he’d ever had—happiness, sadness, worry, surprise—was colliding inside his body, battling to see which one of them might win. It was not so different from the sensation he’d felt once long ago, in that tiny village in Africa, when he’d been a very different man. For just one second, Toby was sure that his face had betrayed him, but he managed to shift everything back in place just in time.”

This passage represents an important development for the plot and each of the three major themes. Toby’s decision to adopt Cady advances the theme of Family Connections. The chapter also develops the theme of Destiny Versus Chance. V’s accident on the highway makes him leave his usual route, and the fog leads to him swerving onto Miss Mallory’s lawn. While they may seem like the work of chance, these events form part of a bigger, fated picture. Lastly, this excerpt addresses the theme of Identity and Self-Discovery because it contains the first mentions of Toby’s hidden past, especially the mysterious events that happened in Africa. The last sentence’s description of Toby managing to “shift everything back in place” on his face is a subtle hint that he is a chameleon.

“‘There’s no controlling what Fate hands you,’ the man went on, pulling the suitcase to his side. It was a very old suitcase, boxy and large as a small child, with worn corners and three small dimples near the left clasp. ‘And in my experience, it rarely seems to give you exactly what you need at the exact moment that you need it.’ Cady wrinkled her eyebrows. ‘Sir?’ she said. Maybe he thought she was someone else. ‘Just remember this,’ he said. ‘It’s the way we deal with what Fate hands us that defines who we are.’”

In this passage, the traveling salesman, who is the personification of fate, meets the protagonist for the first time. His advice encapsulates the author’s message about destiny and chance. This scene is also significant because it occurs right before the salesman sets many of the story’s events into motion by giving the Owner the suitcase containing the long-lost peanut butter recipe.

“The Owner had always believed that there was really only one Talent you needed in this world: The Talent for appropriating other people’s Talents.”

This chapter helps the reader understand the antagonist, whose identity is still a mystery at this point but is later revealed to be Mason Darlington Burgess—Toby’s father and Cady’s grandfather. The covetous Owner amasses over 200 stolen Talents in his lifetime. Even when he knows a Talent, such as whistling, has no connection to his ambition of restoring his family’s peanut butter empire, the bitter man takes satisfaction in stealing from others.

“This wretched place had been pushing Toby away for years, but now that there was someone else to think about, Toby found himself actually listening. The Lost Luggage Emporium was no place for a child, he knew that for a fact. Not with the old man and his single-minded whims. But how to explain that to Cady, without having to explain too much?”

This passage presents important plot and character developments. Toby recognizes V, wants to shelter Cady, and knows that the Owner cannot be trusted. This suggests that he knows about the Owner’s Talent-stealing and foreshadows that V is Toby’s mother-in-law. Toby’s conundrum adds to the novel’s mystery because he is determined to keep secrets from Cady even as he tries to protect her.

“Fifty-three years. He’d spent fifty-three years searching, tracking down every St. Anthony’s suitcase ever made, and it wasn’t there. His mother’s peanut butter recipe wasn’t there.”

This excerpt conveys the Owner’s rage, despair, and motivation. After obsessively collecting St. Anthony’s suitcases for more than half a century, his efforts seem to be for naught. This also develops the theme of Identity and Self-Discovery by confirming that the Owner is Mason Burgess, the young man from the Prologue.

“As Cady moved to snap closed the top, something fluttered out of the ripped lining, just flittered to the floor, as though Fate had wanted her to find it. A slip of paper. Cady picked it off the ground. It was brown like a fallen leaf, and brittle with age. Its creases were raised like scars. As she slowly unfolded it, one corner crumbled completely to bits. PERFECT PEANUT BUTTER.”

Developing the theme of Destiny Versus Chance, the Owner overlooks the recipe he’s spent 53 years searching for, but it falls out of the suitcase “as though Fate had wanted [Cady] to find it.” Cady’s immediate reaction is to bake a cake for the Owner, which demonstrates her kindness and strong desire to please others and also advances the plot.

“Marigold had the worst suspicion that she’d just mailed off her little brother to New Jersey.”

In a key plot development, Marigold accidentally mails the suitcase Will is hiding inside. This connects to the theme of Family Connections because she was trying to get back at Zane. It also develops the theme of Destiny Versus Chance. The mix-up with the suitcases is an accident, but it leads to important happenings, such as the revelation of the hairpin’s true significance.

“Cady had finally found her perfect family. The tug in Miss Mallory’s chest had told her. (It was trying to tell her something else, too, as it turned out, but Miss Mallory wasn’t listening.)”

The description of the “tug in Miss Mallory’s chest” develops the theme of Family Connections. While Toby is meant to be a part of Cady’s family, the tug is “trying to tell her something else.” This foreshadows that Miss Mallory is also part of Cady’s perfect family.

“Had Zane taken a moment to inspect things a little more closely, he would have discovered that there was, in fact, something quite interesting about the picture in the black wooden frame. Beige. Cracked. Knobby. As wide as a rib of celery and as long as a pencil. On the wall of Toby’s bedroom was a framed illustration of Mrs. Asher’s hairpin.”

The illustration in Toby’s room deepens the novel’s mysteries. The reader wonders what exactly Mrs. Asher’s hairpin is and how these seemingly disparate characters are connected. The description of the “Beige. Cracked. Knobby” hairpin is repeated with slight variations several times throughout the novel and indicates that it is a bone even before its enormous paleontological importance comes to light.

“‘Show me the recipe you used.’ Without another word, Cady pulled the recipe from her pocket. She handed it, wrinkled and brown and fragile, to the Owner.”

In a major development for the plot and the theme of Destiny Versus Chance, Cady hands the Owner the inheritance he’s searched for for most of his life. The moment is suspenseful because the novel is only about halfway through, prompting the reader to intuit that the conflict with the Owner will not be resolved so quickly.

“‘Life is the grandest adventure one can go on, isn’t it?’ the giant said kindly (he seemed to be a very friendly giant). ‘What else could a person ask for than just to be alive?’”

The giant speaking to Will is the traveling salesman from the Prologue. Because he is the personification of fate, this interaction advances the theme of Destiny, and his words about the importance of life carry added weight. He takes Will to the Natural Sciences Museum, which eventually leads Mrs. Asher to give the Jupiter bird’s toe bone to the museum.

“It had taken fifty-three years, but finally Mason Darlington Burgess, the good-for-nothing heir to the Darlington fortune, had discovered the secret ingredient to his own mother’s peanut butter recipe. Talent.”

In a plot twist, the novel’s antagonist discovers that his mother had a Talent all along. His search, which took half a century, appears futile. This passage develops the theme of Identity and Self-Discovery and officially confirms the many clues that foreshadowed that the Owner is Mason Burgess. The Owner’s discovery has important consequences for the plot because his next step is to deduce that Cady has a similar Talent to his mother’s and resolve to steal it.

“The Owner let out a chilling laugh. With icy fingers he plucked Toby’s hand from his shirt. ‘You can’t protect the girl from everything, Tobias.’ Every part of Toby’s body burned now, from his heels to his hair. ‘No,’ he said, remembering that horrible day in Africa. You certainly couldn’t protect anybody from all the terrors of the world. ‘But I can try.’”

This passage develops the themes of Identity and Self-Discovery and Family Connections while increasing the story’s suspense. Toby’s determination to protect Cady is connected to his hidden past and “that horrible day in Africa.” This foreshadows the revelation that Toby gave his infant daughter up for adoption in Madagascar and that this daughter is, in fact, Cady. The author uses adjectives like “chilling” and “icy” to emphasize the Owner’s coldness and the danger he presents to the protagonist.

“Marigold knew—she’d been told her whole life—that if you did something wrong, you should be punished for it. (Shouldn’t you?) And if you tried really hard at something, you should be rewarded. (Right?)”

Marigold’s need for her brother to face consequences is connected with her need to believe that she’ll be rewarded with a Talent one day. This connects to the theme of Destiny Versus Chance because she wants to believe that “good” and “bad” people are fated to receive what they deserve. Marigold’s understanding of morality also ties to the theme of Family Connections because it makes her relationships with her older brother and mother tense at this point of the novel.

“For one fraction of an instant, the man in the doorway had been a different person. The outer edges of his eyebrows had turned up, just a touch. His usually straight nose had tilted to a crooked angle. And his normally flat hair had developed a hint of a cowlick. The man was a chameleon.”

In an important development for the plot and the theme of Identity and Self-Discovery, V realizes that Toby is a chameleon. This revelation explains why V didn’t recognize the man even though he recognizes her. It also provides some context for the Owner’s statement that Toby’s problem is that he cannot be honest about who he really is in Chapter 34.

“‘No wonder you have to go to boarding school.’ Zane jerked his handles again, harder this time. ‘Shut up,’ he snapped. ‘Mari the Middling.’ With a rage that welled up from deep inside her, Marigold pushed her brother and the bicycle, hard, backward down the path…straight into the oncoming car.”

The rage that “welled up from deep inside” Marigold has been building for a long time, and it finally boils over. The term “Middling” connects to the themes of Family Connections and Identity and Self-Discovery because middle children are more likely not to have Talents and because she fears that she will always be Fair. Marigold feels that she is overlooked while at the same time held to higher standards than her older brother. These sibling dynamics and the pressure she feels to be the good and responsible child lead to resentment. Her anger that her older brother has seemingly always dodged the consequences of his actions and her insecurity about not having a Talent lead her to shove Zane into oncoming traffic. This marks a turning point for Marigold and Zane’s relationship because it makes the siblings realize how much they care about one another.

“Bake the cake that’s your favorite. It sounded so simple. But how was Cady supposed to know what her favorite cake was? Cherry? Chocolate? Almond? Cady had never thought she’d have to worry about such a thing until her Adoption Day party and, for some reason, when she squeezed shut her eyes and searched her brain, all she found was a mess of confusion. But somewhere, out in the audience, Toby and Miss Mallory would be watching, and Cady didn’t want to disappoint them.”

This passage shows how cakes serve as a motif for the theme of Identity and Self-Discovery. Cady consistently puts herself last and is so focused on making other people happy that she doesn’t know her own favorite cake even though her Talent is baking. As a result, her mind contains a “mess of confusion” rather than a clear understanding of herself. Indeed, her focus is still on pleasing other people during this scene, as the last sentence of this excerpt illustrates.

“As Miss Mallory picked her way through the bleachers to the spot that Toby had reserved beside him, she glanced over her shoulder just long enough to catch sight of Cady, stirring a dark batter with a pained look on her face. And as Miss Mallory did so, she felt yet another tug in her chest. It was a strong one this time, assertive and dogged, the same heart-yanking tug she’d been ignoring all week. For over a decade, really. And even if she thought she might have deciphered its meaning, Miss Mallory already knew that it was too late to do anything about it. Cady had already found her perfect family and, for better or worse, it did not include Miss Mallory.”

Developing the theme of Family Connections, Miss Mallory has been ignoring her deeply rooted knowledge that she and Cady are meant to be a family for “over a decade.” Like the 11-year-old, Miss Mallory has always prioritized others’ happiness over her own. At this point, she believes that it is too late for her to be part of Cady’s perfect family, but the novel’s resolution gives Miss Mallory the happy ending of her dreams.

“The old man. His palm was pressed to Cady’s forehead. Toby leapt to his feet. ‘Stop!’ he cried. It might be too late to help her, but he had to try anyway. That’s what fathers were meant to do. ‘Dad! Stop!’”

In the suspenseful climax, the Owner steals Cady’s Talent. The revelation that the Owner is Toby’s father means that the Owner is Cady’s grandfather, which advances the theme of Family Connections.

“What did she want? Cady looked around the soaking mess of a room. The screeching alarm, the panicked bakers, the sopping cakes. And then, Cady couldn’t help it. She laughed. ‘I think I just want to go home,’ she said. And Toby—with his imperfect, crooked-nosed face—offered her a real smile. ‘Whatever makes you happy,’ he told her.”

The climax at the bakeoff develops the themes of Family Connections and Identity and Self-Discovery. Cady learns that she is Toby’s biological daughter, and he stops disguising himself with his chameleon Talent. Although Cady just lost most of her Talent, she is able to laugh with joy because she knows that she has a home and a family.