54 pages • 1 hour read
Katherine ApplegateWillodeen
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Nature
Nature is a major motif in Willodeen. The woods and waters near Perchance make up myriad ecosystems, and each of those works in its own way to keep the village thriving. The relationship between the screechers, blue willows, and hummingbears is the most obvious ecosystem, but there are other environmental factors alluded to throughout the book, such as the effects of people on nature. It’s mentioned that before the events of the story, the world had been changing for years. More disasters struck, and the dry earth led to fires. The exact causes of these disasters are not explored, but they are likely due to different parts of nature being unbalanced, possibly because of human interference. Most of the people in Willodeen’s village don’t consider themselves part of nature, which mirrors how many people in the real world see themselves outside the balances that keep nature thriving.
Applegate made up several species of plants and animals for Willodeen, each of which represents a real species or group of species from Earth. Screechers are based on small predator animals, such as coyotes. While screechers don’t appear to be a threat to small, domesticated animals like dogs or cats, they are viewed as a nuisance and something to be gotten rid of. The importance placed upon screechers at the end of the book symbolizes the respect that should be given to predators and pests on Earth. Coyotes may hunt and make noise at night like screechers, but they play a vital role in nature’s balance. Getting rid of them because they aren’t convenient only does a disservice to the planet. Similarly, hummingbears represent creatures like hummingbirds or monarch butterflies—small animals that are generally seen as harmless and enjoyable to look at. The reverence that Perchance’s villagers give to hummingbears symbolizes the tendency for humans to favor pleasant things. Even without the fair, hummingbears are docile creatures that make beautiful nests. These qualities afford them more respect, even though the role they play in nature is no greater than that of screechers.
Fire
Fire represents major turning points in Willodeen’s life throughout the novel. The fire that took her family establishes her solitary personality and shyness, things that are deepened by her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her nightmares about fire show how she fears the past repeating and losing the life she managed to carve out since her family died. The fire in the book’s latter chapters is Willodeen’s worst nightmare coming true, and her response to the fire shows her character growth. Rather than hide and hope the fire passes her by, she throws herself into helping the village put out the flames. Her actions save both the people she cares about and her home, as well as the homes and loved ones of her community. Willodeen’s choice to stand with the village against the fire shows her thinking and caring about people beyond herself.
In addition to symbolizing Willodeen’s character growth, fire more generally represents both destruction and starting new. The fire that took Willodeen’s family destroyed that part of her life; though it was not a welcome change, her new life and relationships would not exist without it. If given the chance to go back, Willodeen likely would not choose to lose her family, which likely would result in her being a very different person. Fire is a force of change. It’s not shown in this capacity in the novel, but fire is also a way for nature to cleanse itself and burn away debris that may be keeping ecosystems unbalanced. In this way, Applegate uses fire to comment on how fire is destructive separate from its natural purpose. When used to cleanse, fire provides a service to nature and is in balance with the rest of the ecosystem. When it is not occurring naturally, fire is a destructive force, showing how something can be both helpful and harmful.
Magic
Willodeen is a fantasy novel. While magic might seem to play a relatively small part in the story, this depends on the definition of magic applied. As a supernatural force, magic’s only real role in the story is to bring Quinby to life. No explanation is given for how this is achieved, which means it doesn’t matter how the magic works or where it comes from. The important part is that magic exists and can do wondrous things. At one point, Willodeen reasons that magic could be real because terrible things happen all the time and feel just as unlikely. Willodeen defines magic as a purely good force, believing that nothing bad could be the product of magic. While there’s no evidence to support this, there is also no evidence to refute it, and the novel leaves the definition of magic and what it can do up to the reader.
Mae, Birdie, and Connor treat magic as a real force while Willodeen remains skeptical. Though none of them have any type of mystical powers, their definition of magic allows them to expand what they think of as mystical. Mae and Birdie view life as magical, and therefore growth, death, and other natural processes are magic to them. Mae and Birdie also propose the idea that angry tears have magic, which suggests they have seen angry tears work magic before. It may be that other emotions have magic as well; while those emotions don’t show their magic in the book, it could be that the magic those emotions produce is so subtle that it’s often dismissed as something nonmagical.
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By Katherine Applegate
