111 pages • 3 hours read
Robin RoeA List of Cages
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A 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.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Julian's Mother's Green Spiral Notebook
The green spiral notebook symbolizes Julian's search to find the meaning and purpose of his parents' death. The notebook contains random lists of things that his mother wrote. Throughout the novel, Julian carries the notebook with him, studying it, pondering the purpose of the lists, but he can't ever figure it out. In the same way that Julian doesn't understand the meaning of his mother's lists, Julian moves through his life perplexed at why his parents had to leave him. After he almost dies in the trunk from Russell's abuse, Julian is convinced he must go get his mother's notebook. The notebook is so important to him that Julian risks his safety and the safety of his friends to go back to Russell's house and search for it. As Julian finds other coping mechanisms for life, and after the threat of Russell is no more, Julian rips up the notebook.
Shoes
Shoes have a special significance in this novel. They often function as a symbol of power or a lack of power. In Chapter 9, when Julian is first beginning to hang out with Adam, he feels inferior to Adam. Adam is popular with his teachers, classmates in all grades, and he's also a good student. Julian sees himself as unpopular with classmates and teachers, and he doesn't believe he's a good student. In this chapter, Julian notices that Adam wears red, high-top shoes, and they remind him of "Superman's boots" (57). In contrast, Julian looks down at his own shoes and sees how his shoes are bleached white. In Chapter 8, Julian again compares his shoes to Adam's: "While we walk, I watch our feet. My sneakers used to be white but are now dirty yellow. His are new and bright and moving" (43).
At times when Julian feels like he has no power, he often plays with his shoes. In Chapter 1, when the school principal is lecturing him for missing classes and Julian can't find a way to speak, Julian thinks, "I can't speak, so instead I fiddle with the plastic tip of my shoelace" (6). The same thing happens in Dr. Whitlock's office. In Chapter 8, Dr. Whitlock wants Julian to tell her things that are classified as confidential, but Julian doesn't want to tell her his secrets. He doesn't know what to say or do, so "[he] start[s] picking at the tip of [his] shoelace. The last bit of plastic comes off and falls onto the floor" (50).
On the same day when Julian decides to claim his own power and write down his list of cages, Adam brings him a pair of brand-new sneakers. Julian says "They're bright red, and I can imagine myself running in them" (274).
Stars
Roe's most consistent motif in this work is the presence of stars. The motif is used seven times in the novel as a representation of the presence of hope and happiness, or the lack of it. In Chapter 1, Julian tells the story of how his father routinely tucks him into bed and asks him "How many stars [are in the sky]?" (10). Julian states that "on a great day I'm supposed to say nine or ten. But if it was amazing, the best day I ever had, I'm supposed to cheat and say something like ten thousand stars" (10).
The next time stars are mentioned, Julian is at Emerald's birthday party, where he dances freely and enjoys himself. While Adam is dragging Julian to bed after the birthday party, Julian tells him he didn't ask. Adam says, "'Ask what?'" (110). Julian replies that he didn't ask him how many stars there were, so Adam asks him. Julian smiles, closes his eyes and answers "'Ten…thousand…stars'" (110). The motif appears again right after Emerald's birthday, when Julian goes home and he isn't sure if Russell knew he was gone or not. He sits on his bed and reads an Elian Mariner book and comes to a part in the book where Mariner sees the earth and stars. This is interrupted by Russell’s return to the house.
The star motif reaches its zenith when Russell locks Julian in the trunk. Julian has a kind of half-flashback, half-dream involving his father. He imagines his father tucking him into bed, asking Julian how many stars he sees. Julian, inside the trunk, can’t see any stars at all. As Adam takes him out of the trunk, after Julian has felt the least happiness and the least hope of perhaps any point in the book, Julian insists that Adam open the trunk back up: "'Open it…for the stars'" (223). This is both literal and figurative, as Julian has glow-in-the-dark stars affixed to the inside of the trunk, and the stars need light to shine.
Julian experiences a lack of hope and happiness in the hospital after he realizes what has happened to him. He is trying to take a shower, but he falls out. At that moment, Julian's eyes are "looking up for something, for stars" (249).
Roe drives the motif home on the last page of her text, when Julian is at his own birthday party at Emerald's house, surrounded by people he loves. He looks up at "a perfect night sky" and sees "Ten Million Stars" (310).
