The Skeleton Tree

“My uncle Jack told me once that if you look too long at a fire it will steal your thoughts away. He was right.”

For Uncle Jack, fire represents timelessness. While staring into the flames, one’s thoughts cease and one is left empty and bare before the heat. While Chris views this as a warning, Uncle Jack is a character at ease in nature. A man of wild abandon and danger, Jack’s connection to nature is evident in his quotes and in the way he lived and died on the water. He wasn’t afraid of the fire or the water but understood the dangers and chose to live among them. Instead of stealing his thoughts, the fire brings Chris a vision of his father that takes his doubt away and instills hope in him.

“I’ve learned my way through all the things that scare me.”

Chris runs through the thick forest toward the sea, expecting to find rescue boats. He’s scared of the forest despite all the time he has survived in it, and yet he has found a way to overcome his fear as well as the world that makes him afraid. He begins the story as a boy with many fears. As the story progresses, Chris must face his fears one by one, gaining confidence and skills as he conquers each one. By the novel’s end, he has learned how to cope with his fears, how to confront and conquer them, and how to live with them.