Two Degrees

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-17

Part 2, Chapters 18-40

Part 3, Chapters 41-55

Part 4, Chapters 56-72

Part 5, Chapters 73-77

Part 6, Chapters 78-103

Part 7, Chapters 104-108

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Human Connection and the Natural World

The connection between humanity and the natural world is one of the primary themes of Two Degrees. Gratz uses multiple methods to convey his message that humans need to work both with each other and with the natural ecosystem to effectively combat the effects of climate change. In the opening chapters, Akira Kristiansen shows this connection directly through her relationship with the “Monarchs,” the giant sequoias that grow on the mountaintop behind her house. She reveres the trees, and, like her father, she sees them as a symbol of nature’s resilience. However, they become a symbol of how everything is at risk in the human-disrupted biosphere. The sequoias have stood for thousands of years, through many climactic fluctuations, fires, earthquakes, and other disasters, but they are killed in a matter of minutes by the unnatural Morris megafire. This fragility is similarly conveyed when Owen destroys the pond, the ancient permafrost crumbling beneath his feet. As he watches the water drain out, he is directly faced with the ways that humans can negatively impact the world around them. These contrasting scenes show that while some climate change losses seem impossible to stop without massive effort, others can be avoided by individuals treading carefully in fragile environments. Akira had no way to save the Monarchs from the fire, but Owen could have preserved the pond simply by not barging up to it.

Several scenes also show that during a natural disasters, humans, animals, and the environment become intertwined in ways not normally seen. When Akira comes face to face with the mountain lion, and when Natalie floats by the alligator and the python, the animals pay no attention to the humans, horse, and chihuahua that they might normally attack. As Owen and George move through the landscape, they know the bears might attack them but start to feel connected to the animals, realizing they are all just trying to survive in the harsh landscape. All of the characters, human and animal, are at the mercy of natural forces. Akira, Sue, and Dodger can only run where the fire will let them. Natalie is pulled wherever the strong winds and water currents take her. Owen and George are pushed by the bears but are also threatened by the dangerous landscape of frozen lakes and bitter cold.

All of the humans ultimately survive by giving in to the whims of nature in some way. For example, in Akira’s case, she lets Dodger’s animal instincts take control in the moments when she sees no escape from the fire and although they get burned, he finds a way out of the flames where no human would think to run. Similarly, Natalie chooses to stop fighting the storm and instead work with it, using the naturally clustered train cars to run toward Patience’s balcony.

Coming of Age in a Changing World

All of the main characters are young teenagers faced with their own internal conflicts and normal middle-school issues in addition to fighting their way through disasters. Their circumstances do not quell these feelings; in most cases, they intensify them. Akira, for example, struggles to overcome her natural shyness when talking to Sue as they escape from the initial fire. When her dad chooses to get in Daniel and Sue’s car, she is overcome with a desire not to be with other people that prevents her from admitting at first that it may be the only way to get out alive. As she befriends Sue, she starts to realize that she is not as opposed to human relationships as she thought, she has just never met someone who truly understands her.

Since Owen and George spend much of their story either walking through the wilderness or trapped in various locations, they begin to work through the issues that threatened to break their friendship apart. Owen helps George realize that he wants to stay in Churchill and encourages him to talk to his parents, while George helps Owen realize that his carelessness is a real issue that he has to overcome to live a healthy life. By the time they get home, they are closer than ever, and both have matured in significant ways.

Natalie’s story primarily focuses on leaving her childhood behind and finding her voice in the activist community. Mariposa acts as a literal symbol of childhood lost, as the shoeboxes that Natalie has carefully constructed into a model of the world are destroyed in the hurricane, at the same time that she is faced with the reality of a hurricane in a low-income neighborhood. By the end of the story, she no longer dreams about Mariposa, but she uses its butterfly symbol as the symbol of her climate change rally.

As they struggle to survive, each character realizes that the circumstances they find themselves in are destined to become the new normal if nothing is done to combat climate change. Since nearly every adult is either ambivalent or in denial, they understand that it is young people’s responsibility to be the voice for their own future before it is too late. In Akira and Natalie's’ stories in particular, the death and destruction that they witness firsthand motivates them to stop just talking about the environment to their families, but to become involved with a wider movement.

Survival and Resilience in Disaster

Every character exhibits the innate will to survive that defines both human and animal life. This theme is intertwined with the Human Connection and the Natural World theme, as every wildlife encounter shown in the book reflects that all life forms are, at the most basic level, just doing whatever they can to survive. Sometimes this means ignoring humans, as seen in Akira and Natalie's stories, and sometimes, as shown in the Churchill story, it means attacking a human to protect their young or hunting humans for food. The domestic animals, too, have instinctual survival capabilities. This is most obvious in Dodger, who proves that he can escape from a fire more effectively than any human and is the reason that Akira and her family escape. Even the tiny Churro is committed to his own survival. He finds the car to stand on when Natalie cannot and abandons his fear of her when he realizes that she is helping him.

Akira, Natalie, Owen, and George all share this natural survival instinct, but they are also particularly adept at navigating their circumstances, which helps them many times. Every character has spent their entire life in the place where they find themselves needing to survive. Akira knows the mountains like the back of her hand, which allows her to navigate toward her house even while a fire rages around her. She is also specifically trained in wilderness survival and is able to diagnose Sue’s dislocated arm and create a makeshift sling out of pillowcases and duct tape. Owen and George are both extremely knowledgeable about both polar bears and the tundra; Owen as a result of his tour guide experience and George through listening to his grandfather’s stories of Inuit life. Although they ultimately make good decisions, such as choosing to climb onto the cabin and realizing that they are on a frozen lake before it is too late, their knowledge about what to do in a bear attack has not necessarily prepared them for actually being in that situation. This is most obvious at the beginning of the story, when Owen forgets to grab anything from the snowmobile while stopping to pee. Natalie, similarly, acknowledges that her obsession with hurricanes is of little use when the actual “Big One” hits.

Although all of the characters survive, the overall message of the story suggests that this was largely due to luck, and that no amount of background knowledge or training can ensure survival in the likely future of more climate disasters. Many people die in both Miami and the Sierra Nevada, even those who felt they were ready for what happened. This lesson contributes to the message of the book, that the only solution to a future dominated by climate change is to do whatever possible now to mitigate its effects.