Sadie

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 6

Chapters 7-18

Chapters 19-29

Chapters 30-35

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Vulnerability and Strength of Women

As the protagonist of the story, Sadie represents both the vulnerability of women in society, as well as their potential for incredible strength. Sadie is young, poor, undereducated, and ignorant of the world outside her rural town. She was sexually abused as a child and grew up bullied and friendless. Yet despite her extremely vulnerable position in life, Sadie accomplishes a great deal, as she taps into her inner strength. Sadie raised her younger sister when her mother lacked the capability to do so. Though she has nothing to go on but a distant memory of the name of a diner, Sadie embarks on a journey to track down her sister’s killer, who is also the man who molested her as a child and exploited her vulnerability. Sadie faces danger, uncertainty, physical pain, and the emergence of horrible memories, but she continues moving forward. She is threatened by Caddy, who attempts to prey upon her perceived vulnerability, and she turns the tables on him. Silas attempts to overpower Sadie physically and mentally, but she fights back. Sadie’s strength and protection extends to the children that Silas sexually abused, as she enlists Javi into bringing Silas to justice.

Sadie begins her journey for personal reasons and to avenge her sister’s death, but as time goes on, she finds herself wanting to save the other vulnerable young girls whom Keith abused. As Sadie looks at the names on the tags from Keith’s hidden stash, she is overcome by the desire to help them all. When Sadie meets Nell, she desperately wants to carry Nell away from the threat of Keith. Seeing Nell’s helplessness pains Sadie and reminds her of her own vulnerability as a child. Though the reader does not know what ultimately happened to Sadie, it seems that Sadie overcame a head injury and fought hard enough to fatally stab Keith. Sadie finds reserves of strength that she did not know she had. This speaks to her emotional and mental strength much more than her physical strength.

Claire is another example of vulnerability and strength. She was ill-equipped to nurture a newborn and, as she tells it, May Beth swooped in and never gave her a chance. Claire is profoundly sorry for her weakness and neglect, which resulted in the loss of her daughters. When Claire finds out that Mattie is dead, she gives into her weakness and tries to commit suicide, but failing that, she goes to rehab and gets clean. Claire returns to Cold Creek and though it is personally difficult for her to do so, she stays in the hope that Sadie will return to give her another chance to show her love. Claire overcomes her vulnerability as a very young, drug-addicted mother and grows into a stronger person.

Other female characters in the story represent this theme. May Beth is a strong character who helps raise Sadie and Mattie. It is through her determination that West begins his investigation of Sadie’s disappearance in the first place. Ruby is an example of a woman who lost her husband early on and found the strength to keep his diner business afloat. Marlee is a struggling single mother who is on the losing side of the gentrification of her town, but refused to keep herself beholden to men who were pedophiles, including Keith and Silas. Cat is a vulnerable young hitchhiker, but she finds the strength to keep herself safe. Amanda is devastated to learn that her child was sexually abused by the man she brought into her house. West tries to assure her that it is not her fault and that Keith knew how to recognize and exploit her vulnerability.

The Commodification of Female Suffering

West’s podcast is more than just a clever framing mechanism in this novel. The author’s use of the podcast is a commentary on the prevalence and popularity of “true crime” podcasts and television shows. Murders, sexual assault, kidnappings, and torture are all common themes in these forms of “entertainment.” The author criticizes our culture’s fascination with watching and listening to stories of suffering, most often of young women and girls, and the media’s capitalization on that fascination, which continues the exploitation of the victims. Claire picks up this theme, when she accuses West of taking her family’s tragedy and turning it into a show for others’ entertainment. In doing so, Claire blasts West for not caring about Sadie as a person but as a commodity for sale. This scene represents the author’s condemnation of those who regularly do this to real-life families.

The novel also criticizes the way in which media is obsessed with portraying stories of dead or imperiled women that usually focus on the perpetrator—almost always a man—making him the central character. Stories revolve around the male figure, detailing how he committed his crime and his attempts to escape detection and arrest, while the female victim is a prop in the background. This novel, in contrast, centers around Sadie, not Keith. Mattie is not just a disposable girl who was murdered; she was the love of Sadie’s life and the center of her universe.

This theme is also highlighted in the way the author deals with the sexual assault and child pornography in the story. Although Keith’s molestation of Sadie is more implied than explicitly described, there is no question in the reader’s mind that it occurred. Similarly, Mattie’s murder is never described in detail. Marlee implies that she found child pornography in Keith’s belongings, which prompted her to kick him out, but she does not describe the picture. Silas’ photos of his T-ball players are also not described in detail. The author does this to show that the portrayal of the ugliness and horror of female suffering does not have to be salacious to be heartbreaking.

The Effects of Poverty and Privilege

A theme throughout the novel is the effect of poverty and privilege on its characters. Sadie suffered her whole life from being exceptionally poor in a poor town. She experienced the tragically common effects of having a drug-addicted mother in a place with few resources. Sadie faced poor nutrition, lack of therapy to help with her stutter, few opportunities to earn money, and an educational system that failed her. She is intelligent but ignorant through no fault of her own. Sadie’s story would likely have been a very different one if she had grown up with greater means.

Meanwhile, West becomes involved in Sadie’s case because of May Beth’s desperation. The police in Farfield obviously did not conduct much of an investigation into Sadie’s disappearance, showing their lack of concern for what happened to a girl from a poor town and with no important connections. May Beth could not afford a private investigator, so she calls West.

Marlee is a character who grew up lower-middle-class and is feeling the grinding effects of encroaching poverty, evidenced by her pile of unpaid bills. She will likely have to leave Wagner soon because it is gentrifying and she can no longer afford it. Her brother Silas escaped this fate when their parents sent him—but not Marlee—to college, allowing him to break the cycle of poverty and build a life of wealth and privilege.

Kendall and Noah are therefore a direct contrast to Sadie. Their lives revolve not around survival but the alleviation of boredom. Their way of life seems unreal to Sadie, who compares it to life on Instagram where everything looks perfect.

As West describes them in detail, many of the towns that Sadie passes through on her quest become representative of this split between poverty and privilege. Cold Creek is poor and good for nothing, in Sadie’s estimation. Montgomery is rich and full of wonders that Sadie never even dreamed of because she did not know they existed. Montgomery’s respectability and power protect Silas’s privilege for many years. Sadie calls Farfield an average of all the places that she had been, with very nice areas and very poor parts. Not surprisingly, Keith is living in one of the poor areas, though he faces a nicer part of the gradient, as Keith aspired to a life above poverty.