I Survived The Shark Attacks Of 1916

Pranks are a recurring motif within the text that illustrate Chet’s fraught path to belonging and forming lasting relationships in Elm Hills. Chet strongly desires to make friends with three classmates, Sid, Dewey, and Monty, but he struggles to trust the connections. When the boys play a prank on him at the creek, staging a shark attack, Chat feels humiliated and blames himself: “How could he have thought these guys wanted to be his friends? They just wanted someone to pick on. That was the only reason they’d invited him to the creek” (30-31). Chet begins to run away, and the boys try to convince him that the prank was harmless. Chet ignores them, too embarrassed to turn around.

Uncle Jerry tries to explain and excuse the boys’ behavior as an example of the boys’ interest in befriending Chet: “It means they like you, that you’re one of them [...] Now they’re expecting you to get them back” (33). This advice is well-meaning but misguided, as it inspires Chet to play his own prank. Taking his uncle’s advice to heart, Chet thinks that pranking his friends must be the only way to secure his place in their group. His plan backfires and the boys are angry with him, creating further strain in the relationship.

With the boys now distrustful of one another, the cost of pranks almost takes a deadly turn when in Chapter 12 Chet tries to warn Dewey, Sid, and Monty about the shark in the creek, but they refuse to listen. The boys ignore Chet, thinking that he is once again playing a prank, and they continue playing in the water until the shark emerges. Chet and the boys make it out of the situation alive, but injured, as Chet must spend a week in the hospital due to a shark bite that claims most of his calf. In the newspaper article reporting on the event, it states: “[Chet’s] cries of warning were ignored, with most residents dismissing his story as a prank” (76). This underscores how seemingly innocent pranks can have deadly outcomes. It also suggests that a better way for Chet to belong is through love and vulnerability.

The event does show Chet and the boys, however, the depths to which they are willing to go for each other. Chet jumps in the water to save Sid, and in turn the boys help pull Chet out of the mouth of the shark, saving his life. When the boys visit Chet in the hospital, Sid tells him that they have learned something important from the experience: “We’re calling a truce. No more pranks” (85). For most of the text, Chet believes that connection can only be forged through teasing and pranks, but in the wake of the shark attack, he realizes that the four boys have shared an important experience together, one that bonds them much more than a prank could.