The Light Pirate

“‘Fri,’ he says, trying to de-escalate the fury he sees on her face, ‘we’ll be okay. I promise. I’ve been prepping for hurricanes since I was a kid. I know how to do this.’ He reaches for her. The baby kicks again, hard, and she suddenly doesn’t have the energy to point out that they have this in common. That there is not one expert in this house but two. Soon, a third. Because what will this baby know but storm after storm?”

This scene clarifies the Lowe family’s dynamics at the start of the novel. Kirby’s overconfidence in his own expertise and his efforts to calm Frida rather than offer her understanding are misguided. Additionally, this passage develops the theme of Survival and Adaptation. Frida’s grim prediction for her daughter’s future proves true. Climate change plays a major role in the novel, which presents a near-future Florida. However, Wanda adapts and not only survives “storm after storm” but learns to thrive.

“He’d known for years how decrepit the U.S. electrical grid had become. Every lineman knew that. But he’d imagined, as they all had, that one day the work would get done. The lights, somehow, would stay on. Turns out that in a territory where no one could vote, they wouldn’t. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that Puerto Rico was only the beginning, but he doesn’t dwell on that.”

Kirby reflects on San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he met Frida in the aftermath of Hurricane Poppy. He understands how human corruption and inequality worsen the effect of nature’s violence in “a territory where no one could vote.” Moreover, he knows that the government’s abandonment of Puerto Rico is “only the beginning,” foreshadowing the desertion of Rudder and Florida as a whole.

“Outside, the wind is eager for destruction. She can hear the windowpanes rattle against their frames, can hear the moans and the howls and the screams of air and water gusting, twisting, pressing into this small town just so. Is she being punished for this not-wanting?”

Frida’s anxious thoughts interweave the themes of finding family and nature’s violence. As the hurricane bears down upon her, she views the storm as both a punishment and the source of a newfound appreciation of her family despite the problems and tensions between her and Kirby and Lucas.

“She has no regrets. Her money is much better spent on supplies and modifications than sitting in some IRS account, only to disappear when the banks go belly-up. The generators, the garden beds, the fruit trees, the ground well, the weapons and the skills to use them—all of it. This is her future. She is done trying to convince anyone else that the sky is falling when all they need to do is look out the window.”

Phyllis’s characterization is inextricably linked to the theme of survival and adaptation from the moment she is introduced in Chapter 22. At the start of the novel, her focus on survival isolates her because her friends and relatives do not want to acknowledge the decline of their civilization. However, she later passes on her survival skills to Wanda, who becomes her family.

“Kirby is at a loss for words. Relief floods his nervous system. He scrambles, reaching; something is wrong with this, this tidal wave of relief has come too soon, and then he finds it. ‘Where’s the other one?’ ‘The other…’ she says slowly, not understanding. ‘The other boy. Which kid do you have?’”

In one of the novel’s most suspenseful moments, Kirby answers Phyllis’s phone call while driving in the eye of a Category Four hurricane as his wife gives birth alone. The phone conversation further intensifies the suspense because it is unknown which of Kirby’s sons is with Phyllis and whether the other boy is alive.

“Frida looks down at the baby and something like electricity passes between them—a brief spark, a small jolt.”

In Chapter 28, the novel’s protagonist is born. The “brief spark” that passes between Frida and her baby introduces the story’s magical realism elements. Frida names her daughter after the storm, and the hurricane shares some of its power with her. This mysterious ability plays a major role in the plot of the remaining parts.

“The rule of this household is that Wanda occupies its center. She is their sun, and in return for their venerations she gifts them with a levity they would have otherwise forgotten is possible.”

This excerpt gives insight into the Lowe family’s dynamics in Part 2. The sun metaphor describes the 10-year-old Wanda’s bright, lighthearted personality and offers a subtle hint that her magical ability involves light.

“She has been watching the town empty, the water rise, the storms pummel, as far back as she can remember. This is the rhythm she was born to. Kirby is old enough to remember arguments about whether climate change was real. Lucas is old enough to remember when tourists still came. But to Wanda, these things are only stories, so distant they might as well be fiction.”

This passage explores nature’s impact on the community of Rudder, Florida. The differences between Kirby’s, Lucas’s, and Wanda’s lived experiences show how climate change accelerates on an exponential curve. Brooks-Dalton uses Rudder as a microcosm of the world.

“‘Stop, seriously.’ Brie steps forward, as if to stop him herself, but then—the sixth graders are unable to explain what happens next. Below the ocean’s gray surface, something unusual is occurring. The struggling shadow that is Wanda’s flailing, submerged body brightens.”

In a major development for the novel’s plot and genre, Wanda causes water to glow for the first time. This is also the first scene with Brie. She tries to come to Wanda’s defense, foreshadowing the way that she protects Wanda later in the story. While they eventually find happiness together, their relationship needs time to heal from the violence between them. This is largely due to the actions of Brie’s twin, Corey, who tries to drown Wanda in this scene.

“‘She wanted you to know where you come from. And you come from storms, which can be hard, and people don’t always like them, but storms are important. They’re nature. You come from, um…’ He looks at Lucas, floundering. ‘From…’ He’s lost. ‘You come from the elements,’ Lucas finishes. ‘From the wild.’”

Lucas helps Kirby answer Wanda’s questions about why Frida chose her name. This demonstrates the characters’ growth since the start of the novel. Kirby still struggles to talk about emotions, but he is making more of an effort in this area. The once spiteful Lucas has become a kind and conscientious young man. In addition, the men’s descriptions of storms touch on the beauty and violence of nature and allude to the wildness in the protagonist that later allows her to survive and make a home in nature.

“Little lights, popping into existence in great swaths, spreading until it is as though she is floating through a wet sky. This time, she can feel their consciousness, a sensation of curiosity surrounding her, inspecting her. They want to tell her something, but Wanda doesn’t know this language.”

The second time that Wanda makes water glow, Phyllis witnesses the phenomenon. This begins Phyllis’s decades-long effort to reach a scientific understanding of the magical realism element. The revelation that the lights possess consciousness adds intrigue as both Wanda and the reader wonder what they wish to tell her.

“‘So then…what, the entire town falls off the grid? The whole county? No more power? No more air-conditioning? No more…fuck, no more gas? How will people live?’ ‘Look, guy,’ the man says, and then takes a deep breath. ‘Believe me when I say that the repercussions of the fiscal situation we find ourselves in have not escaped me, or anyone else. But the fact is, the population is migrating. The entire coastline is eroding, the sea level’s rising—I mean, it’s not like it’s news to you. The cost of infrastructure is too high to sustain. And getting higher every year. Fewer taxpayers, bigger problems, less money. Et cetera.’”

In a significant plot development, the dreaded, heavily foreshadowed abandonment of Rudder becomes official. Brooks-Dalton emphasizes the government’s negligence by juxtaposing Kirby’s passionate conviction in the necessity of his job with the bureaucrat’s focus on money over the human cost of the decision.

“The lights whisper to her, loud and urgent, but the only voice she wants right now is her father’s. It’s a sound she’ll never stop wanting.”

In Part 2’s suspenseful conclusion, Kirby dies when climate change causes Lake Okeechobee to burst through its dam. As he perishes, the lights in the floodwater try to talk to Wanda. Thus, magical realism collides with the effects of human neglect and nature’s violence. Her father’s death changes Wanda’s relationship with the lights, making it difficult for her to trust them for many years.

“Phyllis knew, even then, that Wanda needed help finding beauty amid the violence. She still needs it. But there is no one to show her now.”

This excerpt comes from the first chapter of Part 3. At this point, Phyllis has been dead for years, and Wanda struggles to see “beauty amid the violence” of nature without her friend and guardian. Wanda recalls how Phyllis showed her a meteor shower the year after Kirby’s death. This foreshadows a moment in the novel’s final chapter in which the elderly Wanda admires a meteor shower and thinks of Phyllis.

“Dangerous creatures lurk in these swamps; she is one of them.”

Flooding transforms the town of Rudder into a dangerous swamp. The changes in the setting parallel the changes in the protagonist. This quotation helps to establish how the Wanda in Part 3 differs from her younger self. The remainder of Part 3 goes on to detail some of the events that precipitate those changes, such as the break-in and Phyllis’s death.

“‘I’m Bird Dog,’ the woman says. The strangeness of this name is eclipsed by everything else that makes this moment strange. None of the fear coursing through Wanda is present in this person’s voice. The opposite. She is calm, nonchalant.”

At the lagoon, the paths of Wanda and the woman formerly known as Brie cross for the first time in years. The “calm, nonchalant” Bird Dog offers a steadying presence to Wanda, who has become highly cautious and fearful in her solitary efforts to survive. The dark night prevents Wanda from recognizing the woman as her former classmate. The two later fall in love, which has major implications for the plot and for the theme of Finding Family and Community.

“It’s nothing but fires year-round there. And the East Coast isn’t any better. Floods, refugee camps, heat waves, droughts. It’s always too much of something or not enough. Even the places where the land is still good—there are too many people who need it. There’s something wrong every place you go, Phyllis.”

Lucas explains why he couldn’t finish his degree and why he’s grateful that the 16-year-old Wanda is with Phyllis. His mentions of “[f]loods, refugee camps, heat waves, droughts” show how the grim effects of nature’s violence extend everywhere. Lucas continues his father’s legacy as a lineman by choosing to leave Rudder and contend against the end of civilization using the skills he gained from working alongside his father.

“At least here, Wanda not only understood her ecosystem, she was a part of it. It was the water-bound light that flocked to her, but so much more—the storm predictions, her ease in the water, the way she adjusted to the changing environment almost effortlessly. Leaps of adaptation are what’s necessary now, Phyllis thought. If humans desired a future, if they deserved one, it would have to come from a generation made like Wanda.”

Wanda’s wise guardian makes a connection between the protagonist’s traits and the theme of survival. In Phyllis’s view, the novel’s magical realism element is one of the “leaps of adaptation” she deems necessary for humanity’s endurance. Phyllis’s idea of “a generation made like Wanda” foreshadows Part 4, which shows more children being born with remarkable abilities like hers.

“Her brain rushes to fill in the uncertainty, telling her this hive of remnants is bigger and therefore more dangerous than she could have imagined, but another voice is whispering to her, too. It says, Help them. It says, Let them help you back.”

In another instance of magical realism, the lights lead the protagonist to Bird Dog and her “hive of remnants.” The voice entreats Wanda to accept the community’s help and offer them hers in return, which foreshadows the novel’s climax, in which Bird Dog saves Wanda’s life and Wanda then welcomes the community into her home.

“They are kind to one another. Sometimes they argue, but mostly they discuss fishing and trapping, harvesting fruits and tubers from the swamp, repairing boats, sewing clothes, child-rearing, cleaning, building…they are engaged in the work of survival, not plunder. Just as Wanda is. But they do this work together.”

Wanda’s observations of the six drifters develop the theme of finding family and community. At this point in the novel, her wariness of other people is on par with her desperate yearning for human connection. Bird Dog and her fellows have created a strong and supportive family, and they help Wanda rediscover what it means to be part of a community after many years alone.

“‘Then okay. It was a long time ago, Wanda. We both done things we had to. But it’s done. Can’t change none of it.’ And somehow, that is all there is to say.”

In a major development for their relationship, Wanda and Bird Dog absolve one another. Bird Dog doesn’t blame Wanda for killing her brother and father, and Wanda forgives Bird Dog for her role in the break-in. The women’s honesty and mutual forgiveness builds trust between them, paving the way for the novel’s climax and resolution.

“She understands that it isn’t enough to have made it home. It isn’t enough to be alive after all these years. There is a deficit here that she is unable to reconcile. Life costs more than it gives.”

When Wanda returns home after fleeing from Bird Dog a second time, she is weighed down by grief over her lost loved ones and her belief that she can’t be with Bird Dog. This advances the theme of adaptation because Wanda realizes that survival is about more than having a pulse. She needs to live, not merely evade death.

“‘Don’t run off again,’ Bird Dog says, helping her up out of the mud, each of them relying on the strength of the other. Bird Dog’s hand travels up to brush the side of Wanda’s face and then to cup the sloping base of her skull, fingers threaded in her hair, a place Wanda didn’t know was made for this hand although it clearly was. ‘I won’t,’ she says.”

After Wanda promises not to run from Bird Dog again, they share a kiss that marks the culmination of much struggle and foreshadowing. The storm and the sentient lights bring the women together, developing the theme of the beauty and violence of nature and suggesting that both are necessary.