Flora And Ulysses

Comic books are a key motif, one that inspires characters, guides Ulysses in his newfound superpowers, and provides a unique, engaging novel format for readers. Flora is passionate about comics, and her favorite comics are about The Amazing Incandesto. She is so influenced by these comics that she applies what she learns from them to real life, her vivid imagination allowing her to blend the world of comics and the real world in creative ways. Flora often imagines word bubbles above her and others’ heads, particularly when someone says something profound or unanticipated. The first time this occurs, Flora witnesses Tootie about to vacuum a squirrel. She shouts, “You’re going to vacuum up that squirrel!” (7), and then marvels at how one never knows what phrase they might utter on a given day. Flora introduces Ulysses to comics on his first day of Becoming Illuminated, as she is certain that he is a superhero just like Incandesto. A full-page illustration shows Flora and Ulysses fawning over the comics, and Ulysses’s eyes are wide as Flora tells him that he is a superhero.

Comics allow Flora and her father to reconnect after the latter’s divorce. When George was still living with Flora, they used to read comics together, with him voicing the characters; Ulysses’s flight reignites George’s love of comics. Flora also uses her comics to guide her in everyday life. The comics sometimes include bonus sections called “The Criminal Element” or “Terrible Things Can Happen to You!” These sections include information, warnings, and advice for unexpected situations. Flora learned CPR from one issue, and uses this knowledge to save Ulysses after he is pulled out of Tootie’s vacuum cleaner. When Flora finds out that her mother wants Ulysses dead, she typecasts her as their archnemesis and vows to fight alongside Ulysses against her. However, Flora’s mother is not necessarily a villain, but a stressed, worried mother—albeit a misguided one. This is an example of Flora’s inclination toward magical thinking (The Possibility of the Impossible), which is heavily inspired by her love of comics.

The parent-child relationship is an overarching motif that acts as a source of conflict for both Flora and her friend, William, who deals with similar issues. The novel seeks to illuminate both the positive and negative aspects of these complex relationships, and how they tend to change as children grow up, as parents grow apart, and as unexpected events insert chaos into families’ lives.

Flora and her mother are polar opposites and painfully distant. Flora is interested in superheroes and comic books, but her mother finds this childish, instead wanting Flora to read “real books.” Flora’s mother is a romance novel writer, but Flora dislikes romance, feeling comforted when she imagines the words “I hate romance” (6) floating over her head like a comic strip. Flora feels neglected and unloved by her mother, and believes she loves her glass shepherdess lamp more than her own daughter. As a result, Flora opposes her mother at every turn, and when she finds a squirrel with superpowers, it creates a divide that Ulysses ironically helps to bridge.

Flora’s conflict with her mother comes to a climax when she voices wanting to move in with her father, and her mother reacts coldly, pretending not to care. Shortly after, her mother kidnaps and attempts to kill Ulysses. Flora has always been closer with her father, having more in common with him. Seeing her father only on Saturday afternoons has deeply affected both Flora and him, but Ulysses’s superpowers help them reconnect. Flora’s father awakens from his dark, lonely state and starts to smile and laugh again, and this instills hope in Flora. Flora’s father becomes an ally in the fight to save Ulysses, and also acts as an ally in the effort to mend Flora’s relationship with her mother. After the kidnapping, Ulysses escapes and Flora’s mother goes home to find her daughter missing. When Flora sees how desperate and upset her mother became at her absence, she realizes her mother loves her after all: “Here I am, thought Flora. And my mother loves me. Holy bagumba” (227).

Like Flora, William is in the midst of a conflict with his mother. After his father died, his mother married a man who doesn’t seem to respect William. William’s stepfather calls him Billy, which William hates, and this eventually pushes him over the edge. After William pushed his stepfather’s truck into a sinkhole, William’s mother banished him to his great-aunt Tootie’s house. William responds to this act by putting on dark glasses and pretending to be blind; it is his way of distancing himself from the world and keeping himself emotionally safe. But after meeting Flora and Ulysses, William is able to open up again, and finds a trusted ally in Flora. Ulysses is always listening to the conversations around him, and when the novel ends, he hopes that William’s family life improves: “[…] he wanted to write a poem where William Spiver’s mother called and asked him to come home” (231).