49 pages • 1 hour read
Kekla MagoonThe Season of Styx Malone
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Sibling Loyalty
A motif of sibling loyalty contributes to the theme about trust as a basis of relationships. Caleb and Bobby Gene best exemplify this motif. Bobby Gene frequently shows loyalty to Caleb by not tattling, by serving as a voice of conscience, and by guiding Caleb’s behavior: “If Bobby Gene hadn’t been there to stop me talking back to Mom, I don’t know what might have happened” (149). Caleb has mistrustful moments when he and Bobby Gene do not agree, but he accepts that Bobby Gene will always be on his side: “Even when he’s leaving me alone, we’re always sort of together” (175).
Caleb learns complex lessons about sibling loyalty over the course of the conflict surrounding Styx. At times, like on the train to Mr. Pike’s, Caleb identifies more with Styx in his thirst for adventure and idolizes his sense of control and power; when Styx leans out the train to feel the wind, Caleb does as well. This causes an epiphany: “Bobby Gene bit his lip, traying to look braver. We had been inseparable all our lives, but I was starting to see the difference between us. The way Styx challenged the world to a fight—it pulled me forward, leaving Bobby Gene behind” (179-80). Going home on the train is a different story, though; Caleb recalls where his loyalties lie when fear prompts love, worry, and appreciation for his brother when Bobby Gene can hardly get on the train.
Though Pixie and Styx are not biological siblings, they feel a mutual, strong brother-sister bond. Pixie’s self-proclaimed nickname matches Styx’s; Styx is deeply saddened when Pixie is pulled away from the foster home by DCS for a new placement. Their loyalty bond is acknowledged as meaningful and important when Pixie gets one of the six tickets to the Children’s Museum at the end of the novel.
The Children’s Museum
The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis symbolizes a host of wishful things for Caleb. He wants the adventurous trip to the big city where he is never permitted by his father to go. The exhibits at the museum represent great differences between his current life and life in other places and other time periods. The notion of going to the Museum on the moped with Styx symbolizes his ardent desire for independence and freedom from rules and limitations. The thought of going with Styx and without his parents represents a delicious and dangerous idea of rebellion for Caleb. Getting to the museum on the back of the moped proves impossible once it is destroyed in the accident; the museum is out of any realistic reach. However, after Bobby Gene speaks candidly to Dad about the intense lessons learned with Styx this summer, Dad realizes his heavy-handedness in outlawing any city trips is detrimental to his relationship with his sons and to their development. Caleb’s trip to the museum was everything he hoped for: “We went from top to bottom, making sure we saw everything” (291). The museum comes to represent how a quality of open-mindedness and acceptance can help in achieving goals that are part of even distant dreams.
Trades
The trades in the story function on both a literal and figurative level; both contribute to the central theme of recognizing the worth in what one has. While the first trade (Susie for fireworks) is inadvertent and comical, Caleb and Bobby Gene become enamored with the idea of trading up what they have for more worthwhile possessions, the way Styx shows them. On a literal level, each trade has its own worth, but more importantly, each brings the boys closer to the item with which they associate the most worth, the moped. Their success surprises and excites Bobby Gene and Caleb since they started with a bag of mistakenly obtained illegal fireworks whose worth was nothing to them, as they knew their parents would never allow them to set the fireworks off.
Styx demonstrates that sometimes an object’s worth depends on the perspective of the barterer; the boys see no value in the old Superman lunchbox, but Styx knows that Mr. Pike will enjoy having it. Caleb is prompted then to associate emotional value with the objects, and this is how he concocts the plan to trade the Harley-Davidson items for the moped. On a figurative level, each step in their trading game represents control and advantage. When they offer and barter for a trade, they have the choice to make or break the deal. When Styx is exuberant over the acquisition of the mower, he is enjoying the success that his control of the situation brought. When Caleb later orchestrates the trade for the moped, he thrills at the prospect of initiating and persuading Mr. Davis into the deal.
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By Kekla Magoon
