58 pages • 1 hour read
Gordon KormanSwindle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Value of Trust and Teamwork
One of the most important lessons Griffin must learn in Swindle is that he cannot do everything alone. Griffin believes he carries the responsibility of solving his parents’ financial problems, creating a perfect plan for the heist, and protecting his classmates from punishment for being involved in his plan. Griffin’s outlook on life depends on his ability to devise a plan for any situation. His plan-making skills showcase his intelligence and desire to influence the world for good; for instance, the skatepark plan he proposes to the town council will benefit the entire community, not just himself. Similarly, his plan for the heist is intended to help his friends and family accomplish their dreams and to keep Swindle from benefiting from his dishonesty. While these are laudable goals, Griffin first goes about these endeavors on his own. Even after involving his best friend Ben in his planning process, his efforts fail. Only when he risks bringing a group of his classmates together who may or may not agree to participate does he begin his path toward success. The risk Griffin takes to move out of his comfort zone and trust others is what finally allows him to succeed.
The final element of Griffin’s character development is learning to trust his parents. Throughout the book, Griffin believes that adults are his adversaries. The dismissal he experiences at the town hall meeting convinces him that the only way for adults to acknowledge him is through a demonstration of protest. At the beginning of the book, that day at town hall still aggravates him: “[T]o be ignored completely, brushed off like a mosquito, just because you were young, was unbearable” (11), he thinks. Even though Griffin does not view his parents as his enemies, he does not consult them either. In Griffin’s plan about how to sneak out at night, his first bullet point is to lie to one’s parents (1). Only after the police get involved in the aftermath of the heist does Griffin confide in his parents, and only after the police arrest him does he apologize to his father. Even though Griffin still considers himself The Man With the Plan (252) at the end of the novel, he has learned that he cannot accomplish his goals on his own.
The Morality and Rights of Ownership
The book’s plot hinges on Griffin’s belief that Swindle has stolen a baseball card that belongs to him. This belief justifies his plan to steal the card back, an action he would not otherwise take because he believes stealing is morally wrong. When Griffin is considering different options of how to deal with being cheated, he reasons that the only way forward is “to fight fire with fire” (40). It is important to note that Griffin is not solely motivated by a desire for justice; he wants to get revenge on Swindle. Thus, although Griffin does not acknowledge it, part of his motivation is anger. With such a strong emotion influencing his decisions, Griffin does not even consider whether it is wrong for him to steal the card before embarking on his plan.
Ben is the voice of morality who tries to bring Griffin’s actions into perspective. When Griffin initially approaches Ben about his plan to rob Swindle, Ben objects on legal and ethical grounds. His ethical argument is the most important, and concisely states two interlaced themes in the book. When Griffin insists that what Swindle did was wrong and that their heist will “[set] things right” (48), Ben responds that even though their action is not wrong in theory, “it’s wrong for us. We’re not burglars. I know we talk about how kids can do anything adults can, but not this” (48). Ben’s statement contextualizes Griffin’s insistence on kids’ equality with adults and the appropriateness of their actions. In Ben’s mind, only a burglar who believes stealing is right to begin with should undertake the task Griffin is proposing. Moreover, Ben points out that a heist is not a job for 11-year-olds. Even though the reader’s ultimate satisfaction comes from the children’s success at pulling off such an audacious crime, they did so at serious risk to themselves and others.
The final and perhaps most important aspect of Griffin’s moral reasoning for stealing the card is his belief that the card belongs to him. When Griffin tells Ben that he found the card in the house that is in the process of being demolished, Ben observes that Griffin has taken something that does not belong to him (20). Griffin argues: “When you knock down a house, you’re really just throwing it in the garbage. It’s not stealing to take something out of the garbage” (20-21). He makes a valid point, which, coupled with Swindle’s cheating, is why the moral position of his ownership of the card and his decision to steal it back are not clear-cut.
The Danger of Underestimating Children
Griffin’s primary source of rancor is that adults ignore his ideas because he is a kid. Thus, when Swindle cons him out of the Babe Ruth baseball card, Griffin decides enough is enough. He uses adults’ expectations to his advantage. When an adult overhears his plan, he makes an excuse. He tells Mr. Martinez they are working on a story for creative writing and tells Mr. Slovak they are working on a school project. In each case, adults unwittingly give Griffin information he can use in his plan.
Swindle is a humorous book, so Griffin resolves his problem of wanting adults to take him seriously in a humorous way. The response to the heist’s success is far greater than he expected. From the national news to the police officers who file past Griffin “to see the kid who took down a house with an UltraTech alarm system and two guard dogs” (242), all of the adults around Griffin have taken notice. The town builds Griffin’s skatepark, and the Cedarville museum memorializes the students in a photograph, symbolizing that Griffin and his friends have made a lasting impression on their town and implying that the adults of Cedarville will think twice before underestimating young people in the future.
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