45 pages • 1 hour read
Joseph BruchacSkeleton Man
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Cultural Heritage and Traditional Wisdom
Bruchac chooses to open the novel by recounting of the legend of the Skeleton Man, and this stylistic decision serves to emphasize the importance of traditional stories that are handed down through generations. The early inclusion of the Mohawk tale also serves as foreshadowing for the primary events of the novel. As she fights against the Skeleton Man, Molly draws repeatedly on her cultural heritage to gain access to traditional knowledge. As she draws on her cultural heritage, she recognizes that the man posing as her great-uncle is like the Skeleton Man of legend, and her respect for her family’s traditions also prepares her to accept the messages she receives in her dreams. Finally, after her foe is defeated, she uses her heritage to recover from the trauma of her experiences and place them in a useful framework.
Molly’s father has told her many stories that stem from the family’s Mohawk heritage, and the legend of the Skeleton Man is initially one of Molly’s favorites. Because her father has told her this story so many times, she immediately recognizes the appearance of these story elements within her own life, and she easily realizes that the man posing as her great-uncle is really a supernatural monster. Because her heritage includes belief in supernatural beings, she is immediately willing to recognize that her family has been imprisoned by the Skeleton Man. Her cultural heritage also transmits the traditional wisdom that instructs her how to defeat such a supernatural creature.
Furthermore, because her father and mother have instructed her to pay attention to her feelings and dreams, Molly has several valuable tools at her disposal, one of the most important of which proves to be the phenomenon of the “aware dream.” Molly’s father has taught her that such dreams often convey important messages, and therefore, rather than dismissing her dreams, Molly pays close attention to them. When she dreams of a talking rabbit, her family’s wisdom instructs her to listen to the rabbit’s words and act on them. Without the previous experience of her cultural heritage and traditional wisdom, Molly would have ignored the rabbit’s advice and failed to recognize his role as messenger.
Finally, after Molly has tricked the Skeleton Man into plunging into the waterfall, she and her parents use their cultural background to make sense of their traumatic experience. As her father finally states, “[T]he only place where it makes sense is in our old stories” (113). Just as Indigenous peoples organize and make sense of the world through storytelling and through embracing traditional wisdom, Molly and her family use their cultural background to explain the reality that bad things sometimes happen to good people. In this way, they lay the Skeleton Man to rest and regain their happiness as a family.
Gaining Insight Through Dreams and Intuition
Although non-Indigenous cultures in the US tend to only value and empirical knowledge over all other forms of knowledge, Bruchac implies that such a view is limiting and even dangerous, as Molly’s experience indicates, not all problems can be solved through book-learning alone. Bruchac demonstrates that Molly’s Mohawk identity and her respect for the traditional stories prepare her to accept the wisdom of her dreams. Raised from birth to listen to her intuition, she begins having aware dreams and demonstrates a keen sense of intuition that warns her of unseen danger. This tendency is first illustrated when she senses that she is being watched—well before she discovers that the Skeleton Man has hidden cameras throughout the house. Despite her worry that she is being overly dramatic and imaginative, she nonetheless listens to her intuition and trusts her own interpretation of events. For example, when she recalls her talk with Ms. Shabbas, she says, “I tell her how I feel, how weird it is in my uncle’s house, how I really, really don’t want to be there” (37). Even before she finds concrete evidence of her predicament, she instinctively knows that something is essentially wrong.
Molly’s intuition informs her actions. When she decides to remain in her great-uncle’s home despite the danger, she states, “I have this feeling that if I am ever going to see my mother and father again, I need to be here” (47). Even before she has any specific information, her intuition tells her that her elusive great-uncle “is involved in their disappearance” (47), and her feelings and intuition prove to be accurate, despite various adults’ insistence to the contrary. In their determination to disbelieve Molly and discount her feelings as childish, Mrs. Rudder and Mr. Wintergreen ignore the Molly’s instincts entirely and base their solutions on the impersonal information available through their psychology and social work. The exaggerated nature of their misunderstanding illustrates the fact that Molly’s intuition has given her a much clearer understanding of her situation.
As Molly’s battle continues, dreams become an important source of knowledge. As Molly states, “Trust your dreams. Both my parents said that. That’s our old way, our Mohawk way” (47). When Molly struggles with the mystery of her parents’ disappearance, her aware dreams provide her with crucial information that allows her to survive and save her family. Because she has grown up in a culture that credits the importance of dreams, she can utilize her experiences in the dream world to solve her problems in the waking world. With this aspect of the novel, Bruchac implies that dreaming connects the dreamer with the wisdom of the universe. Thus, in the vivid and detailed world that he creates, dreams take on supernatural significance by providing Molly with messages from the spirit world that help her to solve her problems. The overall plot of Skeleton Man therefore argues that dreams combine with waking intuition to provide perceptive people with important and inscrutable sources of information.
The Courage and Resilience of Young People
The stories derived from Molly’s cultural heritage and traditional wisdom provide functional models for displaying courage and ingenuity in the face of danger, and Molly’s relative youth puts her heroism in a particularly empowering light, for Bruchac implies that anyone of a similar age is also capable of great feats. By showing that Molly’s dreams and intuition encourage her to be brave and resilient in the face of danger, Bruchac demonstrates that young people can learn to overcome their fears. As Molly utilizes her physical strength and her intelligence and logic in her heroic efforts to save herself and her parents, Bruchac’s narrative maintains a sharp focus on the many capabilities of children and young people. To this end, his adult characters provide very little help, and most of them misread the situation entirely, forcing Molly’s to rely upon her own clear-headed recognition of the danger and forge a unique strategy to defeat the Skeleton Man.
Courage is a complex trait that is comprised of the ability to recognize danger, feel appropriate fear, and persist despite that fear. Although Molly’s situation leads her to be terribly afraid for her own safety and that of her parents, her competence at managing her fears is evident from the very beginning of the novel. When she finds her parents missing, she logically assumes that they will soon return, and rather than panicking, she goes about her day as usual. Although she has yet to realize the full extent of her predicament, she nonetheless demonstrates her resilience in the face of unusual circumstances, and this calm reaction foreshadows her strength and resilience in the chapters to come. Whenever Molly feels fear, she finds logical ways to allay those fears. Ultimately, the final test of her courage comes when she must face down the Skeleton Man at the suspension bridge. She passes this test well, choosing to act courageously rather than panicking and giving up.
Even before this climactic moment, Molly shows courage in a variety of circumstances, as when she reaches out to her teacher and school counselor for help. Although her most trusted adult, her teacher Ms. Shabbas, does everything she can to help Molly, Bruchac uses the callous indifference of the school to illustrate the grim reality that children must rely upon themselves when adults fail to fulfill their protective roles. Thus, when the counselor’s intervention leaves her under the control of the man claiming to be her great-uncle, Molly knows that she must resolve the situation herself, using all the tools at her disposal. Without the help of the adults in her life, Molly must commit to taking courageous action on her own behalf.
Molly’s intelligence and use of logic are immediately apparent when she begins searching for clues in her great-uncle’s study and realizes that he is using hidden cameras to spy on her. This observation also validates her earlier intuitive sense that she is always being watched. Later, when she sees photographs of her captive parents, she reasons that they must be in the toolshed, where the Skeleton Man goes every night. Molly also demonstrates her logical mind when she chooses to sit quietly and think about her situation rather than acting rashly. At this point, she suddenly realizes that the situation is like a chess game, and this thought empowers her because she realizes that she can strategize her way out of her predicament. Her resulting plan demonstrates her resourcefulness when faced with extreme circumstances.
Equally vital to her survival are her physical strength and practical skills, for she initially escapes the confines of her room by using the workmen’s tools to remove her door from its hinges—an action that requires the knowledge of how to use power tools and the physical strength to lift the door. Similarly, when she finds her parents trapped in the basement of the toolshed, she uses her knowledge of bolt cutters to remove the grate imprisoning them. However, her most important physical resource is her running ability. Echoing the physical prowess of the Mohawk girl in the legend of the Skeleton Man and of the dream-Molly, Molly is a skilled and strong runner in the waking world, and this attribute allows her to put her plan into action and save her family.
Ultimately, the courage and resilience of young people is emphasized most prominently when Molly’s competence highlights the relative ineffectiveness of the adults in the novel. For example, Mrs. Rudder, the school psychologist, and Social Services show very little interest in safeguarding Molly’s well-being, and although Ms. Shabbas is a supportive teacher and a good friend, she is powerless to change Molly circumstances. Likewise, although Molly’s parents firmly believe in the wisdom of Mohawk traditions, they have nonetheless fallen for the Skeleton Man’s subterfuge and are now powerless to free themselves. As a young person, Molly therefore faces the necessity of acting courageously and demonstrating resilience on her own, without support from any of the adults in her life.
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