103 pages • 3 hours read
Pseudonymous BoschThe Name of This Book Is Secret
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Personal Differences as Innate Source of Power
The narrative asserts that personal differences are a source of power and strength. When the novel begins, Cass and Max-Ernest, are presented as misfits who are isolated from the rest of their peers yet find a like-mindedness and friendship within each other, as fellow misfits. Cass and Max-Ernest both have certain qualities that single them out from their peers. Max-Ernest’s in particular is treated as a “condition” that needs to be resolved, and yet it defies diagnosis:
The first expert said he had attention deficit disorder. The second expert said the first was out of order. One expert said he was autistic, another that he was artistic. One said he had Tourette’s syndrome. One said he had Asperger’s syndrome. And one said that the problem was that his parents had Munchausen syndrome (28).
Max-Ernest’s “condition” is treated negatively, as an inconvenience or a problem to be solved, but the fact that it cannot be defined marks it as either a nebulous problem or just a defining facet of his personality.
Meanwhile, Cass is fixated on avoiding calamity. She develops obsessive rituals around this anxiety, such as keeping her backpack well-stocked with all the gear she might need for survival, and keeping this backpack with her at all times. In addition, she has developed hypervigilance around her surroundings and often misinterprets her observations to be signs of an impending disaster, as in Chapter 3, when she takes the dead mouse on the field as an indication that the school must be sitting on a toxic waste dump. Like Max-Ernest’s “condition,” Cass’s survivalism is often presented as an inconvenience to those around her or as a problem to be solved; Mrs. Johnson is often exasperated with Cass and tries to teach her to do things differently, to have better manners and not “cry wolf” (32). While it is central to Cass’s character, and a core facet of her personal identity, this survivalism isolates Cass and presents itself as a problem the adults in her life feel compelled to solve, much like Max-Ernest’s situation with his condition and his parents’ reaction to it.
However, these differences become a source of strength for both characters once they are immersed in the world of the Secret. Cass’s survivalism enables her to adapt to situations and think quickly on her feet. She uses it more than once to save both herself and Max-Ernest, as well as Benjamin Blake, such as when she and Max-Ernest rescue Benjamin from the ritual in the pyramid. Cass’s skills also give her the courage and resourcefulness she needs to investigate the magician’s death, leading her to discover clues and develop an intuition for the situation that she might otherwise have missed if she was not primed to observe, analyze, and interpret her surroundings, and prepared to adapt to any situation.
Likewise, Max-Ernest’s chattiness grants him with quick-thinking logic; it enables him to make connections and process information very quickly. When it comes to codebreaking, he sees the patterns more quickly than Cass, and it’s usually him who cracks the code. Max-Ernest is the one to notice the hidden code in the Symphony of Smells, to notice the anagrams in the magician’s notebook, and to solve the riddle that lets them into the secret tunnel leading to the pyramid. Like Cass’s survivalism, Max-Ernest’s condition becomes a source of resourcefulness and agency while in the secondary world of the Secret, indicating that even traits often decried as flaws can prove valuable or powerful in the right context. In short, the characteristics that make us different from our peers are often the very traits that make us who we are, and as a result, they become empowering.
Achieving Balance Through an Understanding of Self
Although the novel demonstrates the power that can come from personal differences, it also emphasizes a balance between maladaptive and adaptive behaviors. At the beginning of the novel, when the reader is told about the many doctors who have tried to diagnose Max-Ernest’s “condition” (28), the listing of various opinions about different neurological conditions highlights the adults’ need for a defined diagnosis and exposes the doctors’ total lack of understanding.
However, far from criticizing medical institutions in general, a later chapter shows that psychology can be useful when applied appropriately. In Chapter 20, a new doctor who suggests that Max-Ernest’s condition is merely a coping mechanism to avoid dealing with his emotions. The doctor theorizes that “Max-Ernest talked about things in order to avoid having feelings about them” (195), which turns out to be very useful to Max-Ernest. Later, he practices sitting with his feelings, and this gives him clarity about his situation with Cass. Although he is hurt and angry at her for breaking up their partnership, he perceives that she is in danger and decides to go after her. The same doctor who advised Max-Ernest to “practice having feelings” (195) also theorizes that the root of Cass’s survivalism was the death of her father, based on the false story about her father being struck by lightning. The doctor suggests that Cass’s fixation on avoiding disasters and saving everyone stems from the fact that her father died in a freak accident and couldn’t be saved (155).
It’s important to note that in both cases, the doctor’s speculations stem from an exploration of the protagonists’ emotions and experiences, and how they have shaped their behavior. The focus is not on the behaviors themselves but on the underlying emotions. This is how Cass and Max-Ernest ultimately find a balance between their adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. While Cass’s survivalism serves her in the Secret world and gives her resourcefulness, for example, it also leads to a hyper-independence that ultimately harms her. This is the facet of her survivalist worldview that she must adapt toward the end: Cass recognizes that trying to do everything by herself leaves her disadvantaged. She acknowledges that she has been “lonely and scared” (221) at the Midnight Sun by herself; later, she also recognizes that having someone to depend on feels good: “You see, as many times as she had tried to save the world, nobody had ever tried to save her before” (244). Cass does not give up her survivalism because, at the end of the day, that facet of her worldview wasn’t what was damaging her; rather, it was her insistence on independence. Her move toward interdependence and collaboration with Max-Ernest allows her to make a friend and to connect with and rely on others. In this sense, she adapts her way of thinking to include perspectives and behaviors that are beneficial to her, demonstrating that there is a balance between personal difference and adaptive behaviors that can be achieved through an understanding of one’s self.
Likewise, at the end of the novel, Max-Ernest learns to control his talkativeness a little: “Although he had supposedly been cured, he had a tendency to go on and on if you didn’t stop him” (337). This appears to be a result of his doctor’s advice: He tried sitting with his emotions and it worked. Like in Cass’s situation, this new balance does not solve the behavior itself; Max-Ernest still maintains his Max-Ernestness and chats up a storm. However, it addresses the more harmful underlying issue, which was not processing his emotions. His transformation toward the end, as he connects better with himself and with others, indicates that he is balancing out the maladaptive parts of his behavior. In both cases, the characters must reach a better understanding of themselves and their motivations to address the habits that do not serve them in positive ways. This allows the characters to accept themselves, to embrace their personal differences rather than see them as inconveniences.
Fixation on Perfection as a Corrupting Factor
In the novel, Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L stand in stark contrast to Cass and Max-Ernest. While Cass and Max-Ernest find power in their unique character traits and differences, Ms. Mauvais, Dr. L, and the other members of the Midnight Sun are committed to a continual coverup of their true selves. They are driven to uncover the Secret as a way to unlock everlasting life and youth. The narrative indicates that this stems from a fixation on physical appearance. Ms. Mauvais desires more than simple immorality; she is dedicated to her appearance, as she wears wigs, undergoes plastic surgery, and covers her hands to disguise her true age. The description of Ms. Mauvais’s appearance as “Barbie-like” (75) emphasizes this image of shallowness and inauthenticity. The Midnight Sun’s entire ideology values shallow surface characteristics like appearance over anything else, a trait the narrative uses to distinguish the bad guys from the good.
The fixation on shallow qualities becomes a defining feature and a weapon for the villains; Ms. Mauvais in particular uses it to play on Cass and Max-Ernest’s insecurities. In Chapter 22, Ms. Mauvais offers plastic surgery to Cass, preying on Cass’s insecurities in an attempt to manipulate her into compliance; similarly, in Chapter 23, she offers a lobotomy to Max-Ernest as a way to fix his condition. In reality, Ms. Mauvais’s offers are negative: She is offering to take something away, to erase defining features, to help Cass and Max-Ernest attain “perfection.” For Ms. Mauvais, removing undesirable traits (decay, physical flaws) means gaining preferable new ones (youth, beauty). This pursuit of perfection has corrupted her, aligning her with the evil Midnight Sun, who will do anything, even murder a child in a ritual, to achieve their goals.
The villains’ inauthenticity and shallowness positions them as foils to Cass and Max-Ernest. Although Cass and Max-Ernest are tempted by the offers to “fix” their insecurities, the narrative reinforces their alignment with authenticity when they find strength in their unique differences and overcome their maladaptive behaviors to connect with their emotions and senses of self on more authentic levels. This reinforces the fixation on perfection as a corrupting factor: Cass and Max-Ernest reject the villains’ shallow worldview and instead find power in their perceived shortcomings. Meanwhile, the villains’ quest for perfect youth leads them toward evil. Like the pristine white gloves the Midnight Sun cultists wear, this flawless external appearance only hides the true decay underneath.
