This page was created by Alison Morgan. The last update was by students at Xavier University.
Good Guys Win
He began writing these novels in the early 1980s. His first three were titled Powder Burn, Trip Line, and a Death in China. His co-author for these three novels was his friend William D. Montalbano. His first solo novel was titled Tourist Season, and was written in 1986. This most recent of his adult novels was published in 2013, and was titled Bad Monkey. Each of his novels is set in Florida. Almost all of his novels have a centralized environmental theme to them, and each also focuses on the greed of specific corporations, but in very different ways. Seventeen of his adult novels have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and also have been translated into thirty-four different languages.
He then began to try writing children’s novels and his first one was titled Hoot, which won a Newberry medal honor and eventually became a film. Hoot goes along with several of his other children novels titled Flush, Scat and Chomp because every single one of these books has environmental theme and are filled with adventure plots. Each involves a different part of environmentalism and has different characters that represent taking some sort of stand against society. I will be focusing on Hoot in my literary analysis because Hoot, being the first of these to be written, sets the stage for all of these following novels. It has also been his most successful children’s novel, winning several different awards. Hiaasen’s writing has continued to have a remarkable impact on society, even in 2014 causing him to write his most recent young adult novel Sink- No Surrender.
Good Guys Win
When one goes on a long drive, nine times out of ten you see construction happening. There is always another Dunkin’ Donuts arriving or another pizza place being built, and there is always some sort of other store or restaurant being added to another city, even though there is one in the next town over. All of these things are important in adding jobs and improving our economy, but there is an even more important thing at stake here. Several of these sites eliminate the habitat of innocent animals that are not able to stand up for themselves and protect their homes from being destroyed. Carl Hiaasen captures these points clearly and beautifully in his 2002 young adult novel, Hoot. Through this story of protection for animals, standing up against consumerism, and portrayal of different environments, Hoot is a piece of green literature that opens the eyes to another generation, and brings hope to older generations.Carl Hiaasen’s novel Hoot is an inspiring story about a young boy by the name of Roy Eberhardt who moves to a new home and school in a town called Coconut Cove, Florida after previously living in Montana. The story begins with Roy having a very difficult time adjusting to his new life of living in a commercialized city with different kids, and dealing with bullies on a daily basis. Roy loved the serene life of Montana, and wants more than anything to move back there. All of this changes when one day on the bus, face smashed against the window, Roy’s attention is grabbed by this one boy running through the neighborhood with no shoes on. He begins to feel bad for the boy, so he tries to leave him shoes the next day, only to get caught by a girl at school named Beatrice Leep. Beatrice is one of the characters that bullies Roy, but is a character that Roy has a tremendous impact on.
Roy comes to learn that the boy’s name is “Mullet Fingers”, and he is actually Beatrice’s step-brother. He learns that Mullet Fingers was in trouble when Roy first saw him and was running because he got caught trying to delay this construction site building a new Mother Paula’s Pancake House right over some owl burrows, in which several owls inhabit these burrows. If this construction site continues, these owls will be buried into the ground. Mullet Fingers feels bad because these owls have no voice, and he also discovers that these specific owls are endangered and the construction people needed to have evacuated all of the owls and have found new homes for these animals before continuing with demolition. These people avoided doing this task by removing the owl statement from their citation files. The story continues with Roy, Beatrice, and Mullet Fingers teaming up to save the owls and stop this pancake house from burying these owls alive. They, like every hero does, succeed and the construction site becomes dedicated as an owl sanctuary.
This story is environmental because it concerns endangered species and the protection of animals. The owls in this story symbolize the several animals on this planet whose environments are destroyed every single day, and have only a few left before there is not a single one left on the earth. With this story of fighting to protect these animals, Hiaasen brings forth this idea to all of the readers of this novel that we need to help these animals as well, and by doing this, he is bringing forth an environmental message to all of his readers. Nature not only includes trees and water, but it also includes every living creature that interacts with nature. This whole story revolves around the owls, and because it involves such a large portion of the environment, it most definitely qualifies as an environmental piece of literature.
Hoot in its entirety represents just one of several written examples of environmental activism. The characters of Roy, Beatrice, and Mullet Fingers represent taking a stand against injustice and speaking out to the nation about protecting the environment and all of those who live in it. These three characters took this idea nationwide when they brought the news of these owls onto national television so the world knew what was going on. This is seen in many other stories through film and books. By standing up for something and bringing forth national attention, they represent a movement that can be seen in our news today. Hoot is also just one piece of environmental activism done by Carl Hiaasen. He has written several other environmental novels for children, his other famous work being Flushed. His work has had a tremendous impact on children and parents of all ages.
This story focuses on every single factor of the environment, shows the impact humans have on nature, and creates an image in the readers’ head of a beautiful view of a forest and also of a warm sunny climate with all of the locations Hiaasen puts into this novel and through the description of each location as well. Several different parts of the book describe the Florida wetlands and the forest in which the pancake house is being built. They also describe all of the different things going on with the construction site, which is also a very important visual that the novel brings to its readers. Hiaasen also describes the golf courses and other wetlands the characters each visit while they embark on their journey to save the owls and expose Mother Paula’s for the crooks they are.
The nature of Roy’s home back in Montana is also very beautifully depicted in this story as well. Carl Hiaasen does a tremendous job of depicting the scenery of Montana and really gives readers a good idea as to why Roy wishes they haven’t moved. There are several little instances of the books where the readers get a glimpse of what Roy got to see in Montana, such as ospreys and buffalo. Hiaasen describes the town of Bozeman, Montana, with its “snaggle-peaked mountains, braided green rivers, the sky so blue that it seemed like a painting” (Hiaasen 17). He also includes several different examples of national parks and other well-known sites of Montana that Roy has hiked and visited during his time living there. Thanks to this incredible detail, readers are able to clearly picture Roy in the Montana valleys and mountains. These descriptions also show us other animals, which is also another huge point that is brought forth by this novel.
There are several animals that are either put into danger, are used for protection, or are preserved in this incredible novel. Mullet Fingers uses several different animals to help protect the owls. He goes as far as using snakes to scare off guard dogs used by the police officers on the construction site, and also puts an alligator in a port-o-potty to scare away the officer on patrol at the site as well. These animals are the central theme to the story. This novel would have no emotional significance if these owls were not included into the construction site. This story would then be just a few kids who are trying to stop deforestation. It would not attract any reader’s attention at all. These owls don’t make this story environmental, but they do, however, play a contributing role to the environmental statement this novel makes against consumerism and greed with the environment.
Hoot also deals with consumerism and how several ecosystems are destroyed daily through buildings of several different sites. Our environment is constantly tampered with every single day, and every time the environment is tampered with, a species’ environment is destroyed. This is another central theme of the novel that is completely environmental that Hiaasen wants all of his readers to understand and be aware of. Roy, Beatrice, and Mullet Fingers are perfect role models at what Hiaasen wants his readers to understand: our environment is precious, and that includes the smallest of species. These owls were overlooked and seen as not important, but like every little ant and fly, they play a role in the food chain and have every single right to be protected, and not buried in the ground like the Mother Paula Corporation wanted to do.
Hoot also focuses on how the environment is taken advantage of on a daily basis and brings forth this fact to several different readers of all generations. The corporation of Mother Paula’s was only concerned with their expansion and making more money. Their greed not only took down several trees and removed a home for several birds, but it also put several animals’ lives in danger. They also represent the people who try to “beat the system” by removing the file from their citation forms. These people did not want to put in the extra hour or so to safely remove the owls and relocate them to a place where they could go on living their lives happy and as safe as humanly possible. This concept makes readers wonder if this happens on a daily basis, and research shows that this is in fact true.
The name “Mullet Fingers” is also a very unique name because it was a nickname given to Mullet by Beatrice because he can catch the fish mullet with his bare hands. This character is representing how nature has an influence on humans just as much as humans have an influence on nature. This boy was known for being able to catch these fish and therefore that is what every person who knew him associated with. This character also uses nature in order to protect nature with his many scaring tactics. By using other animals such as alligators and snakes, he was able to use nature to its best advantage and help some of the animals that were not capable of protecting themselves on their own. He does this several different times, and never gives up, even when he gets bitten by one of the guard dogs on the site. Mullet Fingers also uses nature in his advantage to prevent the construction people to begin moving forward by removing the survey sticks in the ground and filling in their holes. This doesn’t seem like a lot of damage, but this means the company has to measure everything over again and re-stake those survey sticks back into the ground.
Hoot is a remarkable story that brings forth several important messages to its readers and has had a tremendous impact on society. This story is environmental because the whole idea of the book centralizes around the protection of animals, which make up one of the biggest parts of the environment. Hiaasen brings forth the important concept that everyone needs a voice and as the species with the biggest voice, it is our job to take care of other species that are not able to from all of the harmful human beings that try to take advantage of the environment. This idea has been played out by many other novels, and is such a central idea because it remains an issue every single day, and will continue to remain a problem until this message is fully received by every human being on the planet.
Media retrieved from: Winter's Beauty. Digital image. Wall321. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.