Flight Of The Puffin

Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of bias against transgender and nonbinary people, bullying, being unhoused, and the death of a young child.

“I think of that dandelion pushing its way through the crack in the driveway. That’s me. That is me. I just have to find my way to the sunshine.”

Libby sees the world in metaphors of nature, and her creative vision has no limits. When she sees a flower pushing up through the driveway cement, she identifies with it and sees meaning in it. Libby’s conflict thematically centers on Self-Preservation and Being Oneself and her parents’ efforts to quash her artistic expression. As Libby matures and learns to assert her independence, she discovers her potential.

“I eye that lady’s shiny car through the window—there’s no way she knows what we need better than we do.”

Jack’s upbringing and living circumstances (being in a rural area) led to an isolated and narrow way of thinking. Even though Ms. Duxbury doesn’t do anything wrong, Jack feels like she’s violating his space and asking too much of the school. He sees her as different because of what she has and where she’s from, and this is largely due to Jack wanting to be like his dad, who holds these views. Jack believes that he’s standing up to a bully but is instead just fighting a battle that doesn’t need to be fought.

“The other kids at school form a triangle. But me? I am a point in space.”

Vincent sees triangles in everything and, in this metaphor, compares his peers at school to groups of kids that form a triangle, and he feels like he’s somewhere outside it.