98 pages • 3 hours read
Eden RobinsonSon of a Trickster
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A 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.
Chapters 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Norman Rockwell Redux”
Jared spends 45 minutes on a bus to Terrace to visit his father, only to find out from his stepsister Destiny that Phil is in the hospital again because of his back. They deposit the rent money Jared has brought to the office, then take a taxi to Walmart to buy groceries. He only sees Shirley, “the woman who broke up his parents’ marriage” (56), when she drunkenly enters the kitchen for a glass of water.
Jared then goes to the hospital to visit his dad, who has an old back injury and is also recovering from opioid addiction. Phil tries to lighten the mood with wry jokes, but Jared does not have much to say. When Jared tells Phil that Maggie is “the same,” Phil says: “Well, that’s life with a witch, huh?” (57). Jared remembers that when his father first hurt himself on the job, Phil’s disability checks were not enough to pay the mortgage and bills, but Maggie insisted they keep the house. Phil then met Shirley in physical therapy, and Maggie and Phil divorced soon after. Jared remembers Phil visiting him in the hospital after the “whole mess” with David, suggesting David abused him. Maggie had to attend mandatory in-patient anger management, and Jared did not want to stay with his dad, so the Jakses took him in temporarily. Later that evening, when Maggie checks in with Jared about his whereabouts, he lies and says he is with friends.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Christmas Tree Hunt”
Jared shaves his head to copy and flatter Richie. Richie encourages Jared to retaliate against the person who attacked him, and over the next few days, he threatens Jared less. Maggie wakes up Jared in the middle of the night because she wants to go to their hunting cabin. Jared has no desire to go but does not have a choice. Richie drives them in an expensive new truck with snowmobiles in the back, and Maggie must reassure Jared that she and Richie did not steal them. At the cabin, Richie teaches Jared how to use a gun. After practicing for a while, Richie and Maggie shoot at a tree with an AK-47 until it falls.
Once home, Maggie sells the truck and snowmobiles to pay off the mortgage. While celebrating over beer and pizza, Maggie shares that she got pregnant at his age and blames “the nuns” for messing up her mother: “They made her think everything Indian was evil. And that includes you and me” (68). Jared asks about the Trickster, but Maggie deflects and reminds him that she no longer considers the Martins or her mother part of her family. When he presses for more information, she tells him: “You got a big heart, and if you let it lead you around, people are going to use that” (68).
Chapter 9 Summary: “Cooking with Ebony”
Ebony Stewart, whom Jared has not been friends with since they were children, proposes they partner up to sell his weed cookies. Jared is reluctant but agrees because he is determined to help his father get out of debt. Jared spends Friday night baking cookies in Ebony’s kitchen while her parents are out of town, and they sell them quickly. Later that night, Jared wakes up to Dylan drunkenly banging on his door, looking for more cookies. Dylan passes out and wakes up early the next morning vomiting but is intent on attending hockey practice. Jared resentfully gives him a ride home, where he argues with Dylan’s father after Mr. Wilkinson insults him.
Jared spends the weekend helping the Jakses because Mrs. Jaks is preparing to go to Vancouver for chemotherapy. Nana Sophia wires Jared Christmas money and reminds him not to be an “enabler” for his parents: “Repeat after me: I’m not responsible for the crappy decisions of the grown-ups in my life” (81). Blake, who has a black eye, sleeps over at Jared’s and tells Jared not to answer the door if his father arrives looking for him.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Abandonment Issues”
Jared returns to Terrace to give his dad the money he just made from selling cookies. On the bus ride there, a Native man tries to make conversation with him, but Jared finds him creepy and tries to ignore him. The man tells him: “Philip Martin isn’t your father [...] I’m your real dad. My name is Wee’git. Your mother shot me in the head when—” (84), but Jared moves to the back of the bus to avoid hearing any more from the “freak.” Jared only sees a raven when he looks back to see the stranger get off the bus.
Jared pays off Phil’s remaining back rent and is unable to avoid Destiny. She is struggling after her baby’s father abandoned them and guilts Jared into spending the weekend while Phil and Shirley are gone. Destiny goes out to buy more diapers but only returns the following morning after spending the night partying.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Requiem for the Trilobites”
The unknown narrator humorously explains what the trilobites were doing on the day before asteroids struck the Earth 252 million years ago. They “were going out for Starbucks before work [...] near swampy Pangea,” expecting to live for another “200 million years” (92). The narrator claims the trilobites were “blindsided by the end of their world” before they all died in the mass extinction (92).
Chapters 7-11 Analysis
Despite being only 16, Jared is the only adult in his family. He pays his father’s rent, meticulously follows up with his insurance claims, and ends up babysitting his stepsister’s newborn when she abandons them to go party. Jared is the one to suggest his mother get a generator at home to keep the power from going out, but Maggie impulsively takes him to the cabin, avoiding the problem altogether. The roles of Jared and his parents are completely reversed; he is the one they depend on and the one worrying about their irresponsible actions and well-being. Even though Maggie wants him to be “hard” against the world so that people do not take advantage of his good intentions, she is just as guilty of doing so as Phil, Destiny, or Jared’s drunk friends are. Jared’s loved ones never hold themselves accountable, and their lack of responsibility, coupled with their substance abuse, continuously takes a toll on Jared’s mental health. Nevertheless, Jared continues to enable them because it is impossible for him to separate his love for them from the abuse and addiction. The Moody-Martin clan is the absolute antithesis to the proper, perfect families of Norman Rockwell paintings, as Nana Sophia sarcastically reminds Jared.
Maggie begins to explain some of Granny Nita’s history, which introduces Native identity as a source of shame and trauma. The Moodys have had to face Wee’git’s tricks, a quintessential part of their culture for generations, and Anita and Maggie have internalized that part of their identity very differently. Maggie does not abandon her Native identity completely but keeps her magic hidden from Jared and deflects when he asks about the Trickster again. She is fiercely protective of him and has decided to keep the overwhelming truth of herself and his past from him to protect him. Despite her violent tendencies and lack of responsibility, Maggie’s love for Jared is undeniable. By avoiding the full explanations of her family history, Maggie also protects herself by not having to live through it again.
Even though Maggie has no intention of reintroducing Wee’git to Jared’s life, the Trickster is adamant about Jared knowing the truth. This time, he approaches Jared transformed as a human, but even in this recognizable form, Jared refuses to see any legitimacy in what Wee’git says. Despite his mentioning Phil Martin by name, and even sharing that Maggie shot him, Jared does not think much of the encounter other than being annoyed by this “crazy” person. Again, the supernatural encounter is so realistic that Jared finds unstable mental health to be a much more plausible explanation than magic.
Violence and addiction continue to be an inescapable part of Jared’s life; Jared suggests that Maggie’s ex David, whose memory heavily looms over Jared from the beginning of the novel, physically abused him. When Blake stays with Jared to escape his abusive father, Jared’s casual response— “There’s always one in the family” (82)—suggests that domestic violence is so normalized in Jared’s community that these children have started to consider their abuse as more of an unavoidable nuisance than a genuine problem.
