37 pages • 1 hour read
Betsy ByarsTornado
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Resilience in the Face of Natural Disaster
For both the narrator and Pete, everyday life in Tornado Alley requires resilience in the face of natural disasters. Throughout the novel, Byars provides specific examples of how members of both families prepare for, recover from, and cope with fear regarding tornados. First, practical preparations are important in both narratives. In the present timeline, Pete warns the family about the imminent tornado and helps the family into the storm cellar. He exhibits a practical attitude to the storm when he reassures Beth that Link will be okay: “He’ll be all right. He can get in a ditch. You come on now” (2). He focuses on the practicalities of what Link can do to wait out the storm and the fact that Beth needs to get into the cellar. Similarly, in Pete’s childhood memory, Pete’s father instructs the children to “stay close to the house” (6) after his mother smells a storm. In both storylines, the families demonstrate preparation for the storm by taking signs it is coming seriously and taking whatever action they can.
Leaning on family connections and communal experience is also an important aspect of the resilience demonstrated in Tornado. The narrator emphasizes the shared experience of those in the storm cellar: “We listened to the storm and worried about my father in the cornfield” (3). Similarly, Pete remembers that after the tornado rips the roof from their house, “That was how we all felt. We looked at our arms and legs to make sure they were still hooked on us” (7-8). Though the experiences are negative, both the narrator and Pete find comfort in the fact that they are shared. That most of the novel takes place within Pete’s story is also an example of the importance of shared experience to resilience. Pete tells his story not only to distract the family but also to remind them that they are not alone in their experience.
Characters also cope with natural disasters using optimism and attempts to move on from the past. When the roof is ripped from Pete’s family home, his father says, “It was about time for a new roof” (8), suggesting his tendency to find the good in things. Tornado himself is an important example of resilience in the face of natural disasters. He is brought to Pete’s family by a tornado when his doghouse is picked up and thrown miles. In a literal sense, he survives a terrifying ordeal of being transported via a tornado. When he finally emerges from the doghouse, he gives himself a shake “as if he were shaking off the past” (12). The image of Tornado letting go of the past emphasizes the need to move on and demonstrate resilience, even when something scary and destructive has happened.
The Power of Human-Animal Bonds
Pete’s relationship with Tornado is central to the novel, and Byars emphasizes the human-animal bond with descriptions of gestures and empathetic experiences. When Tornado arrives, Pete’s father and Tornado share an important moment: “My daddy put out his hand. Tornado put out his paw. They shook like two men striking a bargain” (12). The gesture of shaking hands with a dog isn’t necessarily unique when the dog knows the trick of shaking on command. However, the fact that Pete observes that they look like two men striking a bargain associates the gesture with a business transaction between two humans. It emphasizes the importance of the moment for both Pete and the family as a whole, as the moment when Tornado formally joins their family. Similarly, Pete observes Tornado’s gesture of shaking when he finally emerges from the doghouse as looking like he is “shaking off the past” (12). Even before getting to know the dog, Pete observes and empathizes with Tornado’s feelings and attributes a great deal of significance and intelligence to the dog’s actions.
Throughout the stories in the novel, Pete gets to know Tornado better. As their bond develops, they begin to communicate with each other even more meaningfully, and Pete continues to assign importance and insight to Tornado’s behaviors. Before they play cards, Tornado walks up and pokes Pete’s leg, which he tends to do when he wants attention or when “his dish was empty or something” (14). Observing that Tornado doesn’t need any food or water, Pete thinks he must want to play cards. After Tornado laps up Carey’s turtle, Pete understands that the dog has been attempting to protect the smaller animal and that “sitting there for an hour with a turtle in his mouth and not knowing what to do with it must have been the worst thing that could happen to a dog” (26). Pete not only understands how Tornado has been feeling but also runs alongside Tornado when the dog attempts to get his residual energy out after this incident. Byars thus emphasizes the intensity and detail with which dogs and humans can relate to one another on an emotional level.
The intensity of Pete and Tornado’s bond is also evidenced by Pete’s distress when Tornado is identified as Buddy and returns to the other family. Pete is paralyzed, feeling like he has been nailed to the ground and needing his father’s help to get into the truck. As he mourns Tornado, Pete’s “eyes kept filling with tears. As soon as I’d wipe one flood away, another would come. I felt like it would be that way for the rest of my life” (43). Throughout the novel, Byars uses physical gestures, empathy, and representations of emotional distress to emphasize the strength of the human-animal bond, which is foundational to Pete’s childhood and character development.
Stories as Sources of Comfort and Connection
Tornado emphasizes the importance of stories as sources of comfort and connection in both its content and its narrative form. The novel is framed by a fear-inducing situation—hiding from a tornado in a storm cellar—in the present tense. However, Pete quickly begins his storytelling process, and most of the novel takes place in the past through Pete’s memories of his childhood interactions with his dog, Tornado. The narrative begins and ends in the present time and returns very briefly to the present within the chapters when Pete pauses in his storytelling or the narrator asks him to continue. Therefore, the narrative structure is dependent on storytelling, and most of its content is the stories Pete tells.
Stories function as a lifeline for the narrator and other family members as they cope with their fear during the tornado. When Pete mentions the three of hearts story and the narrator already knows it, Pete suggests that they wouldn’t want to hear it again. The narrator is emphatic, saying, “I do! I do! This is my favorite story in the world,” to which Pete replies, “Maybe it won’t hurt to tell it one more time” (14). This passage demonstrates that stories are important to the narrator in both good times and bad. The three of hearts story is a favorite, suggesting that Pete has told it multiple times in different situations. The narrator’s emphatic pronouncement that they want to hear the story suggests that it has even more importance during this situation as a comfort during the storm. Similarly, when the narrator prompts Pete for even more stories, he replies, “I remember one time. This was the saddest day of my life. I hate to tell it,” and the narrator asks, “Please” (36). Pete’s reluctance to tell the story demonstrates its emotional power: Even though it happened years earlier, it still makes Pete cry to tell it. The narrator’s “please” demonstrates how important the stories are as a comfort. The fact that Pete is willing to tell the story demonstrates his affection for the family and his knowledge that stories are important, especially in times of need.
Stories function as a source of comfort for the narrator and family during the tornado, demonstrating their power. The fact that stories are both the narrative structure and much of the content of the narrative suggests their importance. Stories also relate to a subtheme of communal experience in the novel. Like surviving a natural disaster, listening to a story produces a shared experience among different people.
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By Betsy Byars
