Roll With It

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Baking

In Roll with It, baking is a motif that becomes symbolic of understanding one’s family and friends. Ellie Cowan realizes when she bakes the Linzer cookies that they turn out well. However, she notices that most of those with whom she shares the cookies do not enjoy them. Several people do not even finish one cookie. As a result, she becomes concerned with what her family and friends enjoy. From there forward, she considers who she is baking for.

Baking also represents Ellie as an individual. This becomes obvious in the choices that Ellie makes about the pie for the bake off. She explains:

So I decided to make a pie that would speak to every part of me. I used [Julia Child’s] crust because it’s nice and sweet and a little fancy, and I used blackberries my grandma and I picked from her garden and canned last summer, because it’s still spring here and I thought people would like a taste of what’s ahead. And I glazed it all in lemon because lemon is my grandpa’s favorite and I wanted to make him smile (234-35).

Herein, she recognizes the traits and the people who help to make her who she is. When combining these elements, she ends up creating a pie that is representative of her identity.

Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is a motif in the novel which supports the reader’s understanding of disability. Sumner also contrasts Alzheimer’s with cerebral palsy. Unlike CP, Alzheimer’s is an often-invisible disability. It is also a degenerative disability, meaning that an individual’s symptoms worsen over time. Furthermore, it is mostly prevalent in the elderly. Watching Jonah Cowan and his family struggle with this diagnosis gives readers a broader perspective of disability. Sumner explores what it means to have a disability as an adolescent versus what it means to have a disability as an elderly person. Sumner illustrates the difficulties of both disabilities at two very different ages.

Lake Eufaula

Lake Eufaula is symbolic of belonging and freedom. It functions as a central location that surrounds many of Ellie’s memories about her grandpa. In the final scene, it is also clear that it will be a point of many more outings, as Ellie arrives at the lake with Coralee, Bert, Alice Cowan, and Coach Hutch. It becomes a representation of freedom for Ellie. As her mother is driving them to Eufaula, Ellie notes: “At least there’s a big, beautiful lake where we’re headed. If I play it right, maybe Mom will let me do more than sit with my feet in it this summer. Water is the only place my body isn’t the enemy. In water I’m weightless. I can float free” (42). The image of floating implies a release from something tying Ellie down. This is further exemplified by the last line of the novel. Ellie is in the lake and thinks: “I am floating.” This serves as a final positive note which brings the novel to a close.