46 pages • 1 hour read
Patrick CarmanSkeleton Creek
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009A 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 Relationship Between Print, Digital, and New Media
Initially, Skeleton Creek seems to highlight the contrasts between print and digital media. The novel accomplishes this by first comparing the two media as storytelling forms. Ryan’s inspiration drives him to “get it down on paper” (17) while Sarah has to “get more evidence on tape” (62). The differences that Carman highlights through Ryan and Sarah are primarily linked to the writing process. Ryan notes that “paper feels permanent” (60) while digital messages disappear, “[evaporating] into thin air as they’re read” (60). Ryan also connects print to the imagination, while he claims that film is grounded in reality since it “requires something to film” (30).
Ryan quickly rebuts the notion that the friends are opposites, however. Instead, he illustrates how each complements the other. Ryan prints deleted emails and includes them in his journal (see 35, 58-59, 61, and 75-77); this establishes the journal as transmedia, or an example of new media. Sarah’s video diary requires passwords available in a print novel and based on literary allusions to well-known novels and stories. Neither protagonist excludes the other’s choice of media. Instead, the theme that Carman establishes is based on multimedia literacy and how media literacy has developed and changed over time. Carman illustrates how print and digital technology work together and complement each other just as Ryan and Sarah work together to solve the mystery of Skeleton Creek.
The steps that the adults take to monitor the teens’ online communication demonstrates the differing perceptions the different generations have of technology. Ryan notes that “adults in general take a lot of comfort in [parental controls], but a fifteen-year-old who can’t get around parental controls on a computer is probably also having trouble tying his shoes” (53-54). While Sarah’s parents “put something on [her] computer to monitor [her] activity” (63), it requires so little ability to disable that she mentions it as an aside. This demonstrates a disconnect between the media literacy of the story’s young adults and adults; the adults see the internet as a dangerous space, while young adults have a more nuanced view. This disconnect leads to miscommunication and a general lack of trust between the young-adult and adult characters, which has important implications for the plot.
The novel’s blend of print narrative and video storytelling reflects what American historian Walter Ong describes as secondary orality. Ong explains that new media demonstrates a more “deliberate and self-conscious orality, based [...] on the use of writing and print” (Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy. Routledge, 1982, p. 133). Carman deliberately combines two genres that highlight the changing state of literacy to illustrate the possibilities available with new media and transmedia storytelling. Detective fiction is a modern literary genre that arose in the 19th century while ghost stories are traditionally an oral folk genre. Sarah’s obsession with film allows Carman to bring in digital aspects of the narrative and demonstrate the self-conscious orality that transitions the oral ghost-story elements into a secondary orality more appropriate for a new-media detective narrative. Carman even hints at the sophistication of the videos when Ryan explains that Sarah’s videos require him to “take notice” (23). The genres work together to create a complex fictional world with which readers can engage on multiple levels.
The Relationship Between Young Adults and Authority
In Skeleton Creek, the relationship between young adults and how they understand and interact with authority is characterized by distrust and subversion. This is an important genre consideration in most young adult fiction, which challenges readers to question institutions. Skeleton Creek uses symbolism to represent the major social institutions that young adults participate in and must learn about when transitioning to adulthood through characters that include Paul McCray (family), Gladys Morgan (education), Daryl Bonner (government), and Henry (economy).
The premise behind the novel is based on Ryan and Sarah’s covert attempts to remain in communication when it is forbidden, as they investigate a place—the Dredge—that is also forbidden. This creates an atmosphere shrouded in secrecy and danger, resulting in bouts of paranoia as Ryan speculates that “they” are always watching. Whether he means a dangerous criminal, the ghost of Joe Bush, or his parents, his language implies constant, dispersed surveillance, which suggests a network rather than an individual surveillant. This makes Ryan and Sarah the underdogs in a struggle against a collective authority.
The other side of this dynamic is that Ryan’s parents know his activities are dangerous. Ryan understands this and often laments that he cannot turn to his parents for help. There is a moment when Ryan considers reaching out to his parents to seek advice and Ryan’s mother reminds him that “trust goes both ways” (161). While Ryan accepts this, he excuses his continuing choice to act in secret, simply noting that “being friends with Sarah makes [him] a liar” (161) and that life is complicated. This suggests that Ryan has no clear argument against his mother’s entreaty to trust the adults. He simply decides against this option.
Each adult character represents how their institution functions in relation to young adults. Paul McCray is representative of family. His interactions with Ryan are sometimes combative, typically authoritarian, and shrouded in fear and suspicion. The portrayal of the young adult–adult relationship between Ryan and Paul contrasts with Ryan’s sweet childhood memories, suggesting their relationship deteriorated during Ryan’s adolescence and contributing to his general sense of disillusionment. Gladys and Daryl represent similarly dysfunctional relationships between the protagonists and the institutions of education and government. They restrict information in ways that suggest conspiracy rather than transparency and demand obedience rather than critical thinking.
Though the other adults are obstructionist, Henry is the only criminal character in the novel. The best explanation for Ryan’s perception of him as an ally is the openness and talkativeness Henry displays. This suggests that young adults value communication and want to be taken seriously. Henry is the only adult who disagrees with Ryan’s parents and their decision to forbid Ryan to see Sarah. Because Henry seems to listen to Ryan, Ryan trusts him. Unlike Ryan’s parents, though, Henry is not responsible for Ryan’s safety. He can have a more open attitude toward the teens because nothing is at stake for him if they get hurt. On the contrary, he places them in a dangerous situation, showing that he values his greed above their safety.
The Impact of Greed and Corruption
In Skeleton Creek, coming of age involves a process of disillusionment with the adult institutions that are supposed to provide security for children and the realization that greed and corruption can motivate adults more than justice and fairness. In the absence of moral absolutes, YA protagonists must devise their own moral compasses, even if they are flawed. This is an important feature of YA fiction and a standard part of the character arc for protagonists in the genre. Ryan’s coming-of-age journey requires him to interrogate the nature of trust and learn to tell the difference between truth and lies. His lack of success in this area is what leads to him and Sarah becoming trapped in the Dredge.
At first, the Crossbones seems to be the source of corruption, but it turns out to be a red herring that distracts Ryan and Sarah from Henry, the real villain. Because Ryan has developed a distrustful relationship with his parents and the town’s other adults, he cannot reach out to any of the traditional avenues of support. Interestingly, in the “peterquint” video, Sarah points out to Ryan that they have no reason to suspect the Crossbones is a harmful or threatening organization, and she tries to reassure him about his father. But Ryan’s relationship with his father is already too fraught for him to take her advice.
Meanwhile, the literary allusion to Peter Quint from The Turn of the Screw foreshadows the real identity of the villain. In The Turn of the Screw, Quint manipulates the actions of other characters. Similarly, Henry dresses as a ghost to manipulate and control events related to the Dredge in Skeleton Creek. Just as Ryan’s coming-of-age arc does not resolve at the end of Skeleton Creek, Henry’s motive of obtaining the hidden treasure is only revealed in the second vook, The Ghost in the Machine. The impact of greed and corruption is introduced in the first novel, but the story must progress further to reveal whose greed is driving events.
While the literary allusions foreshadow Henry’s guilt, his link to New York Gold and Silver is another clue. The company destroyed the environment for profit, creating environmental hazards with disregard for the lasting impact it would have on the land and community. Ryan wrongly assumes that “Henry feels guilty about working for a company that tore up the land, took all the riches, and left Skeleton Creek high and dry” (86) and that his visits are “penance for the work he did in his twenties, back when he didn’t know any better” (86). Ryan would like to see Henry as trustworthy, and therefore he gives him the benefit of the doubt. This shows Ryan’s naivete, and his assumptions work against him in discerning the real force of corruption behind the occurrences in Skeleton Creek.
